The twenty-five-year prison sentence for "terrorism" of the opponent Paul Rusesabagina, the hero who inspired the film Hotel Rwanda, has been "commuted", announced Friday a spokeswoman for the Rwandan government. Paul Rusesabagina's conviction in September 2021 was "commuted by presidential order," spokeswoman Yolande Makolo said of the case, which has drawn international and human rights condemnation.
In May 2022, Washington had deemed that he was "unjustly detained" by Rwandan justice. The news comes less than two weeks after President Paul Kagame announced that "discussions" were underway regarding Paul Rusesabagina's imprisonment. The opponent's supporters believe that his trial was a sham marked by irregularities. And his family insisted on the 68-year-old's declining health.
An opponent of President Kagame
A court upheld his conviction in May 2022, as well as most of his 20 co-defendants who received sentences of three to 1 years in prison. Paul Rusesabagina was made famous by the film Hotel Rwanda which tells how this moderate Hutu who ran the Hotel des Mille Collines in the Rwandan capital saved more than 000,1994 people during the genocide of the Tutsi in <>.
An opponent for more than two decades of Paul Kagame, whom he accused of authoritarianism and fueling anti-Hutu sentiment, Rusesabagina has used his Hollywood fame to give a global echo to his positions. Human rights defenders accuse Rwanda – ruled with an iron fist by Paul Kagame since the end of the 1994 genocide in which 800,000 people were killed – of cracking down on freedom of expression and opposition.
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