Paul Rusesabagina, the man who inspired the movie Hotel Rwanda and was released last week by Rwanda after a terrorism sentence has arrived in Qatar, from where he will travel to the United States to join his family.
Rusesabagina is currently in Doha, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday. “He will soon return to the United States. And his family is, as I’m sure no one is surprised, eager to welcome him back home. The White House has been and continues to be involved in every step of this process,” he said.
Rusesabagina, 68, a legal US resident, was charged in 2021 with terrorism offenses and sentenced to 25 years in prison in a highly criticized trial.
In 2020, the dissident disappeared during a visit to Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, and appeared days later in Rwanda in handcuffs. His family claimed that he was kidnapped. Once in his home country, he was found guilty of eight charges including membership in a terrorist group, murder and kidnapping.
Rusesabagina has claimed that his arrest was in response to his criticism of President Paul Kagame over alleged human rights abuses. The Kagame government has repeatedly denied that dissenting voices are targeting arrests and extrajudicial killings.
In a letter sent to Kagame dated October 14 and posted on the website of the Ministry of Justice, Rusesabagina, who is ill, expressed regret for any acts of violence, writing that “if I am pardoned and released, I fully understand that I will spend the rest of my days in the United States in quiet reflection. I can assure you through this letter that I have no personal or political ambitions otherwise. I will leave behind questions about Rwanda politics.”
His arrest was a source of friction between the United States and other countries at a time when the Rwandan government has also been under pressure over tensions with neighboring Congo and the UK’s plan to deport asylum seekers to the little girl. East African nation.
Kirby said US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan became personally involved in the case “doing the final heavy lifting to get Paul released and brought home.”
