Paul Rusesabagina was the real life star of Terry George’s movie, “Hotel Rwanda,” in 2004. Played by Don Cheadle in the Oscar nominated movie, Rusesabagina saved more than 1000 Hutus and Tutsis during during his country’s 1994 genocide.
Rusesabagina remained an outspoken critic of Rwanda’s president after he left the country and became a US citizen. The movie made him a world wide hero. But in 2020, a flight he thought was taking him to Dubai was diverted to Rwanda and he was taken prison and arrested by Rwanda officials on trumped up charges.
Now many outlets including Semafor.com, a new site, report that Rusesabagina and 20 other activists will be released on Saturday.
According to Wikipedia: “On 20 September 2021, he was convicted on terrorism charges and sentenced to 25 years in prison. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention rendered their opinion on 18 March 2022 that Rusesabagina had been illegally kidnapped, tortured, and sentenced after an unfair trial. The Working Group further found that Rusesabagina has been targeted by the Government on account of his work as a human rights defender, because of his criticism of the Government on a broad range of issues.”
The deal to release the civil rights activist was brokered by the United States and Dubai.
