Outspoken Rwandan government critic Paul Rusesabagina, whose efforts to save people during the 1994 genocide inspired the Hollywood movie “Hotel Rwanda”, has been released from prison after more than 900 days behind bars.
Rusesabagina was released late Friday away from the media spotlight and will return to the United States after the Kigali government commuted his 25-year sentence on terrorism charges.
His arrest has thrown a spotlight on Rwanda’s record of cracking down on political dissent and freedom of speech under President Paul Kagame.
Rusesabagina was convicted in September 2021 of supporting an armed rebel group after a trial that his supporters condemned as a sham.
The 68-year-old, who is also a Belgian citizen with US permanent residency, has been in failing health and his family says he was tortured during his 939 days in detention.
Shortly before midnight on Friday, Rusesabagina arrived at the Qatari ambassador’s residence in Kigali, US officials said.
He will remain there for “a few days” before flying to Qatar, which helped secure his release, and then to the United States, another US official said.
The sentences were commuted by presidential order, Justice Minister Emmanuel Ugirashebuja said in a statement, while 19 defendants also saw their sentences commuted.
But the minister warned: “According to Rwandan law, changing the law does not remove fundamental beliefs.”
US President Joe Biden welcomed Rusesabagina’s release, calling it a “pleasing result”.
“Paul’s family is eager to welcome him back to the United States, and I am delighted with the good news today,” he said in a statement.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement on Friday that the United States is “thankful” to Rwanda for the release, while Belgium also said it welcomed the move.
Rwanda praised the role of the United States and Qatar in solving the case.
“This is the result of our shared desire to reset US-Rwanda relations,” Kagame’s press secretary Stephanie Nyombayire tweeted Friday, adding that close ties between Rwanda and Qatar are “key”.
Talks on a potential release began in late 2022 and the breakthrough came last week in discussions between Kagame and Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, a source familiar with the negotiations said.
Leave ‘politics behind me’
Rusesabagina is accused of supporting the National Liberation Front (FLN), a rebel group blamed for attacks in Rwanda in 2018 and 2019 that killed nine people.
He denied involvement in the attack, but was a co-founder of the Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change (MRCD), an opposition group of which the FLN is seen as an armed wing.
He was arrested after a plane bound for Burundi was diverted to Rwanda in August 2020 in what the United Nations described as a “kidnapping”.
Rusesabagina had left Rwanda in 1996 and moved to Belgium with his wife and children.
Almost a decade later, he became an almost overnight celebrity with the release of the 2004 film “Hotel Rwanda” starring Don Cheadle.
The film was inspired by his experiences as a hotel manager during the genocide, when his family and hundreds of guests – mainly ethnic Tutsi – fled Mille Collines as a machete-wielding mob killed people outside the hotel gates.
Rusesabagina is credited with helping save nearly 1,200 lives during the 100-day genocide that left about 800,000 Rwandans dead.
He continues to be a vocal critic of Kagame, and his remarks against the man who has been Rwanda’s de facto leader since the genocide have led to him being considered an enemy of the state.
In a letter released by the government on Friday but dated October 2022, Rusesabagina promised to “leave questions about Rwandan politics behind me” and spend the rest of his life in the United States in a friendly exchange.
He also expressed his “regret for being associated with the MRCD because of the violent actions taken by the FLN”.
‘Meaning to silence opponents’
The Rusesabagina case has long been a source of contention between Washington and Kigali, and was raised by Blinken during a visit to Rwanda in August last year.
Last year, Rusesabagina’s family filed a $400 million lawsuit in the United States against Kagame, the Rwandan government and other figures for allegedly abducting and torturing him.
Victoire Ingabire, another Kagame critic who was also jailed on terrorism charges before being released in 2018, said the move was aimed at silencing the Rwandan opposition.
“If someone is convicted by a Rwandan court, they are stripped of their right to participate in politics, and a presidential pardon does not restore that right,” he told AFP.