A court in Rwanda said on Monday that the man who inspired Hotel Rwanda, Paul Rusesabagina, is guilty of terror-related offenses.
Rusesabagina, portrayed in the movie by Don Cheadle, boycotted Monday’s announcement after declaring he didn’t expect justice in a trial he called a “sham.”
He has so far been found guilty of the formation of an illegal armed group and membership in a terrorist group. The verdict is still being read out on charges of murder, abduction and armed robbery as an act of terrorism.
The ruling comes more than a year after Rusesabagina disappeared during a visit to Dubai and appeared days later in Rwanda in handcuffs, accused of supporting the armed wing of his opposition political platform, Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change. The group had claimed some responsibility for attacks in 2018 and 2019 in the south of the country in which nine Rwandans died.
Rusesabagina, who was tried on nine charges, has maintained his innocence, and his family alleges he was kidnapped and taken to Rwanda against his will.
Rusesabagina was praised for sheltering more than 1,200 people in the hotel he managed during Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, but later became a key critic of Rwanda’s longtime leader, Paul Kagame, decrying what he described as an increasingly repressive rule. Kagame shot back by accusing Rusesabagina of financing armed rebel groups to overthrow his government and of profiting from invented stories about his heroism.
Source: HollyWood
