`I WAS KIDNAPPED' BEFORE ARREST, HOTEL HERO SAYS

KIGALI Hotel Rwanda hero Paul Rusesabagina, on trial on terrorism and other charges in the central African country, said on Friday he had been kidnapped from abroad before being detained and charged.

Rusesabagina, a political dissident who has lived in exile in Belgium and the United States, was arrested in August after returning to the country. At the time it was not clear whether he had returned voluntarily or had been coerced.

“I was kidnapped to come here,” Rusesabagina said in a Kigali court as he applied for bail. “They tied my legs and my arms and I was blindfolded.”

Prosecutors denied the charge and said due process had been followed.