Paul Rusesabagina who was portrayed as a hero in the 1994 film, ‘Hotel Rwanda’ where he is described to have saved thousands of people during the Rwandan genocide, arrived in Qatar over the weekend after being released from prison in Rwanda.
Rusesabagina, a permanent resident of the United States, was sentenced to 25 years in prison in September 2021 for his links to an opposition group of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, which has an armed wing.
He was released Friday after his sentence was commuted after months of negotiations between Washington and Kigali.
Washington’s historically close ties with Rwanda have been strained by Rusesabagina’s arrest and by US allegations, denied by Kigali, that Rwanda was sending troops to neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo and supporting rebels there.
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Rwanda said the release of Rusesabagina was the result of a shared desire to restore ties between the United States and Rwanda.
A source said the 68-year-old former hotel owner arrived in Doha on Monday.
US officials said he will return to the US from Doha.
Hotel Rwanda depicts Rusesabagina’s success in rescuing over 1,000 fleeing angry Hutus, including his family, during the 1994 genocide by accommodating them in the distressed hotel he ran in Kigali.
At his 2021 trial, Rusesabagina was found guilty of being a member of a terrorist group called MRCD-FLN. A government statement said two attacks in 2018 that killed nine people were a particular focus.
However, the Clooney Foundation for Justice called the verdict a “sham trial” and said Rusesabagina’s conviction lacked the adequate guarantees of justice “required by international and African standards”.
