The parquet, which wanted a heavier sentence, had appealed the conviction for “terrorism”, in September, Paul Rusesabagina.
Le Monde with AFP
Monday, April 4, the Rwanda Court of Appeal confirmed the conviction to twenty-five years in prison for “terrorism” of the opponent Paul Rusesabagina, made famous by the film Rwanda, rejecting the call of the parquet , who wanted a heavier sentence. “Since it is a primary-offender, the Tribunal considers that his sentence must not be weighted, for the twenty-five years he obtained are consistent with the weight of his crimes,” said Judge François Regis Rukundakuvuga after a day of hearing.
Kenaded to be a virulent opponent to President Paul Kagame, Paul Rusesabagina had been sentenced in September 2021 to “founded and belong” at the National Liberation Front (FLN), an armed group accused of having led deadly attacks. Rwanda in 2018 and 2019. The prosecutor’s office, who had required perpetuity prison, had appealed, wishing to see his sentence weighted. The prosecutors had also appealed sentences – three to twenty years of prison – pronounced against its co-accused.
Paul Rusesabagina, 67, has always denied these accusations and denounced a trial to muzzle an opponent. He was not present Monday for the reading of the judgment. His family, who continues to alert his state of health, had announced mid-January that he will not participate in the staging of the appeal of a political prisoner “. The accused and his lawyers had already boycotted the majority of first instance hearings, denouncing a “political” trial as well as misleading in detention.
Arrested in disturbances
Paul Rusesabagina was made famous by the film Rwanda Hotel, released in 2004 and which tells how this moderate Hutu headed Kigali’s thousand hills saved more than 1,000 people during the 1994 genocide. Of which 800,000 people have been killed, according to the UN, mainly from the Tutsi minority.
Opposing for more than twenty years to Paul Kagame, whom he has accused of authoritarianism and to feed an anti-Hutu feeling, Paul Rusesabagina used his Hollywood fame to give a global echo to his positions. He had lived since 1996 in exile in the United States and Belgium, before being arrested in Kigali in 2020 in disturbances, on the descent of a plane he was thinking of Burundi.