`Hotel Rwanda' dissident is released
Man was released from prison after his kidnapping
NAIROBI, KENYA >> More than 21/2 years after he was kidnapped on a private jet and later sentenced to prison on terrorism-related charges, Paul Rusesabagina, the hotelier-turneddissident whose heroism was portrayed in “Hotel Rwanda,” was released from prison late Friday, according to the Rwandan government and to U.S. officials who briefed reporters in Washington.
Rusesabagina arrived at the residence of Qatar's ambassador to Rwanda, the U.S. officials said, and will travel in the next couple of days to the Qatari capital, Doha. After a short stopover there, Rusesabagina is expected to head to the United States to reunite with his family, with whom he has missed milestones that include the births of two grandchildren and the college graduation of his son.
Rusesabagina's departure from Rwanda will end an ordeal that lasted more than 900 days, during which he said he was blindfolded and tortured, held in solitary confinement and threatened with shortages of food, water and his medicine. Rusesabagina's arrest and trial drew the support of celebrities and governments abroad and put new scrutiny on Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who has been accused of cracking down on dissent at home and targeting opponents abroad.
On Saturday morning, reporters who had been invited a day earlier by the government to witness Rusesabagina's impending release gathered in front of the Mageragere Prison on the outskirts of the capital — only for prison officials to tell them that he had left the previous night.
His release was achieved after months of negotiations led by the White House.
Rusesabagina, 68, rose to fame for his role in sheltering and saving 1,268 people at the luxury hotel he managed in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, during the 1994 genocide. He later moved to the United States and over the years became an outspoken critic of the autocratic rule of Kagame. The president in turn lashed out against him, accusing him of profiting from fabricated stories about his heroism and of backing rebel groups determined to oust Kagame's government.
The clash came to a head in August 2020, when Rwandan operatives lured Rusesabagina from his home in San Antonio to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. While there, he boarded a private jet believing he was going to a speaking engagement in Burundi, only to land in neighboring Rwanda.
“Imagine how you would feel if you find yourself where you are not supposed to be,” he said in an interview with The New York Times just days after Rwandan officials announced they had detained him.
After his initial arrest, Rusesabagina said he was tortured by Rwandan security forces, who restrained him, stepped on his neck and denied him food and sleep.
A cancer survivor with hypertension and a history of cardiovascular disease, he lost a lot of weight in the first few weeks in detention, his family and lawyers said.
But Rwandan officials, including Kagame, were elated about the elaborate ruse, gleefully declaring on television that it was “flawless.”
Rusesabagina, who is a Belgian citizen and a United States resident, was then charged with backing and belonging to an opposition coalition whose armed wing the government said was responsible for attacks inside Rwanda.