Paul Rusesabagina, the former manager of the “Mille Collines” hotel whose story inspired Movie The Kigali court announced today that the “Hotel Rwanda” for the genocide in Rwanda, which has become one of the most vocal critics of the regime in that country, has been convicted of “terrorism”.
Judge Beatrice Mukamorenzi said of the Rossabjina case for her alleged support of the National Liberation Front, a rebel group accused of carrying out deadly attacks in 2018 and 2019 in the African country.
The court has not yet announced the corresponding ruling.
Rusabagina, who used his prestige to denounce Rwandan President Paul Kagame as a dictator, was arrested in August 2020 when a plane believed to be bound for Burundi landed in Kigali.
The family alleges that Rospagina was kidnapped and claim that the nine charges against him, including terrorism, are government retaliation for her criticism.
Kagami refuses to criticize the case. He declared that Raspagina was being held not because of his fame but because of the lives he had lost “due to his actions”.
The trial of Rossabgina and 20 others began in February, but the defendant, who holds Belgian citizenship and resides in the United States, has boycotted the case since March, accusing the court of “arbitrary and lack of independence”.
The United States, which awarded Rossapgina the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005, the European Parliament and Belgium have expressed concerns about the legality of the trial.
