March 13 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, has assured this Monday that there are ongoing “discussions” about the case of Paul Rusesabagina, sentenced to 25 years in prison for terrorism and whose story is told in the film ‘Hotel Rwanda’.
Rusesabagina is known worldwide for the aforementioned film. As acting manager of the Mille Collines hotel in Kigali, he was able to protect more than 1,200 Tutsis and moderate Hutus within the establishment during the 1994 genocide — in which nearly 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred — by leveraging his connections .
In the framework of the opening of the Global Security Forum in Doha, Qatar, Kagame has affirmed that Rwanda is not tied to its past and that there are “discussions” about its case. “All possible ways to solve the problem are being sought,” he said.
In this sense, the Rwandan president has insisted that work is being done for his release. “There has been forgiveness for those who did not deserve forgiveness. People who participated in the genocide: many have been released,” he added, according to the Umuseke news portal.
Rusesabagina’s arrest took place in circumstances that have not yet been clarified – her family even spoke of kidnapping – after boarding a flight in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that was supposed to land in Burundi, although it did land in Rwanda. The Rwandan president denied at the time that he was kidnapped.
A Rwandan court ratified on April 5 the 25-year prison sentence against Rusesabagina for his role at the head of the Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change (MRDC), the political wing of the National Liberation Front (FLN) rebel group, which claimed responsibility. of several attacks between 2018 and 2019 that resulted in at least nine deaths.
Rusesabagina himself acknowledged at the end of September 2020 his ties to the FLN, although he argued that his role was solely of a “diplomatic” nature. Thus, he said that the MRDC created the FLN “as an armed wing, not as a terrorist group as the prosecutor claims.” “I don’t deny that the FLN committed crimes, but my role was diplomacy,” he stressed.
