Paul Rusesabagina.Photo: NICOLAS MAETERLINCK/AFP via Getty
Rusesabagina was tried along with 20 other defendants. He been accused of organizing and funding a group that carried out attacks in Rwanda that killed nine people in 2018,The New York Timesreports.
“Rusesabagina … is convicted of being a member of a terror group and participating in terror activities but he is acquitted of creating an illegal armed group,” judge Antoine Muhima said,Reutersreports.
His arrest has led to international condemnation against Kagame, with New York-based Human Rights Watch denouncing it as an “enforced disappearance, a serious violation of international law.”
In February, just before the start of Rusesabagina’s trial, the European Unionadopted a resolutioncondemning the arrest and characterizing it as “politically motivated.”
The resolution also called for an investigation that provides full accounting of how Rusesabagina, who was arrested in Dubai, ended up in Rwandan custody.
“Rusesabagina was forcibly transferred from Dubai to Kigali in uncertain circumstances and only reappeared … at the headquarters of the Rwandan Investigation Bureau,” reads the resolution. “Rusesabagina was arrested at Kigali International Airport, contradicting an earlier police account which stated that he was arrested through ‘international cooperation.'”
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The resolution also noted that the Rwandan government “has arrested, detained and prosecuted critics and government opponents in politically motivated trials” and “repeatedly threatened others outside the country, with some having been physically attacked and even killed.”
Kagame has raised the ire of numerous human rights groups over the years; all accuse him of suppressing the freedoms of Rwandan citizens, and using illegal tactics to eliminate his political rivals.
Relatives have said Rusesabagina, a cancer survivor, is in poor health and being mistreated while in custody. They further believe the allegations against him are unfounded.
“What they’re accusing him of is all made up,” his adopted daughter, Carine Kanimba,toldThe Guardianlast year. “There is no evidence to what they’re claiming … We know this is a wrongful arrest.”
Rusesabagina refused to attend the majority of his trial, alleging that his right to a fair trial has been violated.
In 1994, militias of the Hutu ethnic group perpetrated a genocide that largely targeted the Tutsi ethnic group, killing as many as one million people. At the time, Rusesabagina was the manager of the Hotel des Mille Collines, in the capital city of Kigali, and he used his position to shelter more than 1,200 people.
source: people.com
