Paul Rusesabagina, a sick “Hotel Rwanda” hero and vehement opponent of President Paul Kagame who had been imprisoned for more than 900 days, was told that his 25-year sentence had been commuted on Friday.
Less than two weeks ago, Kagame stated that Kigali was looking into resolving Rusesabagina’s situation, which had raised concerns in the West and among international rights organizations.
Government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo told AFP that “Paul Rusesabagina and (co-defendant) Callixte Nsabimana have had their prison sentences commuted by presidential order, after consideration of their requests for clemency.” However, she did not say when they will be released.
She noted the part played by the United States and Qatar in the case, saying that the sentences of an additional 18 persons who were convicted of terrorism-related offenses with Rusesabagina in September 2021 had also been commuted.
Makolo nevertheless added:
There should be no room for interpretation because it is widely accepted that they were found guilty of committing major crimes.
After a trial that his supporters blasted as a charade that was rife with anomalies, Rusesabagina, now 68, was sentenced to prison. According to the website for Free Rusesabagina, he has been imprisoned for a total of 939 days.
Rusesabagina’s family has long worried about his failing health and expressed concerns that he would pass away in custody.
The sentences against Rusesabagina and the majority of his 20 co-defendants, who received prison terms ranging from three to twenty years for supporting an armed organisation, were upheld by a court in May 2022.
During the 1994 genocide, which mostly targeted Tutsis but also moderate Hutus, Rusesabagina, the manager of a Kigali hotel, is credited with helping to save about 1 200 lives.
Rusesabagina, whose life story served as the basis for the 2004 Oscar-nominated film “Hotel Rwanda,” starring American actor Don Cheadle, became a vociferous opponent of Kagame and established his own party.
He became a fervent opponent of the government, and because of his outbursts against Kagame, he was viewed as a state adversary.
Rights organizations charge that since the end of the genocide, Kagame has ruled Rwanda with an iron fist, repressing dissent and free speech.
– ‘Wrongfully detained’ –
On March 13, Kagame hinted at a potential relaxation in Rwanda’s stance towards Rusesabagina’s issue while speaking via videolink at the Global Security Forum in the Qatari capital Doha.
“There is discussion and consideration of every option for resolving the problem without compromising the essential elements of that case. I believe there will be a solution,” he stated at the time.
Rwanda “notes the constructive role of the US government in fostering a dialogue on this issue, as well as the facilitation provided by the State of Qatar,” according to Makolo’s statement on Friday.
In August 2020, a plane transporting Rusesabagina to Burundi was rerouted to Rwanda instead. The United States said last year that Rusesabagina, who has dual citizenship with Belgium and the US, was “wrongfully detained.”
Rusesabagina was “abducted,” according to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary arrest’s 2022 report, which also concluded that his arrest was “arbitrary.”
Rusesabagina’s relatives claimed that he was coerced into leaving his home in the US by the promise of employment in Burundi and that he was tortured while being held captive.
He was charged with assisting the National Liberation Front (FLN), a rebel organization that is held accountable for attacks inside Rwanda that resulted in nine fatalities in 2018 and 2019.
Rusesabagina, a founder of the Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change (MRCD), an opposition organisation with the FLN as its armed branch, denied any involvement in the attacks.
The issue has been brought up with Rwanda by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and rights organizations, despite Kagame’s declaration last year that the US could not “bully” him into ordering a release.
The family of Rusesabagina last year sued Kagame, the Rwandan government, and other parties for allegedly kidnapping and torturing him in the United States for $400 million.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor bestowed by the US, was given to Rusesabagina in 2005.
