‘Hotel Rwanda’ Celebrity Charged With Murders
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Paul Rusesabagina, portrayed in a film as a life-saving hero during the Rwandan genocide, has been convicted of terrorism by a court in Rwanda.
Rusesabagina was found guilty of backing a rebel group from exile, which killed at least nine civilians.
His family has alleged that he was taken to Rwanda by force. They have also said he did not have a fair trial.
Rusesabagina, now a Belgian citizen, became a global celebrity as his story of protecting people featured in “Hotel Rwanda.”
He has denied the charges, including being a member of a terrorist organization, financing terrorism, murder, and armed robbery.
The attacks by the local National Liberation Front (FLN) killed at least nine civilians throughout 2018, according to investigators.
Rusesabagina was detained in August 2020 after a Burundi-bound plane he boarded from the UAE instead landed in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali.
The 67-year-old Rusesabagina, a critic of President Paul Kagame, saved hundreds of lives during the 1994 genocide.
His actions inspired Hollywood’s “Hotel Rwanda.”
During the Rwandan genocide of 1994 an estimated 800,000 members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as moderate Hutu and Twa, were slaughtered by armed militias.
The slaughter, one of the worst atrocities since World War Two, took place within about 100 days.
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