An ailing Paul Rusesabagina, the polarising hero of the hit film “Hotel Rwanda”, was released late Friday and will return to the United States after the Kigali government commuted a sentence against the outspoken critic of President Paul Kagame.
The 68-year-old Rusesabagina, credited for turning his hotel into a shelter during the 1994 genocide, was escorted just before midnight to the residence of the ambassador of Qatar, which played a key role as an intermediary, US officials said.
Rusesabagina, now a Belgian citizen and US permanent resident, will fly to Qatar and then back to the United States, officials in Doha and Washington said.
Rusesabagina’s family says he was lured back to Rwanda where he was handed a 25-year sentence on terrorism charges in September 2021.
The sentence was “commuted by presidential order” as have been the jail phrases of 19 co-defendants convicted alongside him, authorities spokeswoman Yolande Makolo instructed AFP.
But Makolo added: “Under Rwandan regulation, commutation of sentence doesn’t extinguish the underlying conviction.”
Rusesabagina was jailed on charges of backing an armed group after a trial that his supporters denounced as a sham plagued with irregularities.
Rwanda said the decision would improve ties with the United States, which has also voiced concerns about Kigali’s alleged backing of rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“This is the result of a shared desire to reset US-Rwanda relationship,” Kagame’s press secretary Stephanie Nyombayire mentioned on Twitter, including that the shut relationship between Rwanda and Qatar was a “key” factor.
Friday’s announcement came a day after Kagame left Qatar, where he had signalled his government was looking at ways of resolving the case.
Talks on a potential release started at the end of 2022, and a breakthrough came last week in discussions between Kagame and Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, said a source with knowledge of the negotiations.
Fears for health
His family has accused the authorities of torturing him during his 939 days in prison and warned about his deteriorating health, saying he could die behind bars.
“We are pleased to hear the news about Paul’s release. The family is hopeful to reunite with him soon,” the household mentioned in an announcement to AFP.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed Rusesabagina’s launch, though US officers mentioned there have been no guarantees made to Kigali past public recognition of their transfer and that concern remained over the DR Congo.
“It is a aid to know that Paul is rejoining his household, and the US authorities is grateful to the Rwandan authorities for making this reunion attainable,” Blinken said, also thanking growing partner Qatar.
In a carefully worded statement, Blinken said the United States opposes “political violence” with out backing Rwanda’s accusations in opposition to Rusesabagina.
Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib additionally welcomed Rusesabagina’s launch and mentioned that the previous colonial energy was providing consular help.
Promise to be ‘quiet’
Rusesabagina, then the supervisor of a Kigali resort, is credited with having helped to avoid wasting about 1,200 lives through the 1994 genocide by which about 800,000 individuals have been slaughtered, primarily Tutsis but additionally reasonable Hutus.
His story impressed the Oscar-nominated 2004 film “Hotel Rwanda” starring US actor Don Cheadle.
He went on become a vocal critic of Kagame, and his tirades against a leader he branded a “dictator” led him to be handled as an enemy of the state.
In a letter dated October 2022 in search of a pardon that was launched by the federal government on Friday, Rusesabagina pledged to bow out of political life.
“I perceive totally that I’ll spend the rest of my days within the United States in quiet reflection. I can guarantee you thru this letter that I maintain no private or political ambitions in any other case. I’ll depart questions concerning Rwandan politics behind me.”
Kagame, whose country has a grim record on human rights, last year insisted the US could not “bully” him into ordering his launch.
Timothy Longman, an skilled on Rwanda at Boston University, described Friday’s announcement as a “fairly commonplace tactic” for the government.
“They put an opponent on trial on trumped-up charges and publicly humiliate them. Then either they’re acquitted or pardoned. It’s quite effective at silencing would-be critics while appearing moderate and reasonable,” mentioned Longman, who first met Rusesabagina within the mid-Nineteen Nineties.
Rusesabagina was accused of supporting the National Liberation Front (FLN), a insurgent group blamed for assaults in Rwanda in 2018 and 2019 that killed 9 individuals.
He denied any involvement within the assaults, however was a founding father of the Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change (MRCD), an opposition group of which the FLN is seen because the armed wing.
“I want to categorical my remorse for any connection my work with the MRCD could have needed to violent actions taken by the FLN,” he said in his October letter.
Rusesabagina’s family last year filed a $400 million lawsuit in the United States against Kagame, the Rwandan government and other figures for allegedly abducting and torturing him.
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