Paul Rusesabagina, the hero of Hotel Rwanda, will be released this Saturday

Paul Rusesabagina, known as a hero Hotel Rwandaand who was sentenced to 25 years in 2021 for the crime of terrorism, He will be released this Saturday after receiving a pardon from President Paul Kagameof which he is an avowed opponent.

According to Europa Press, he is scheduled to be released from Nyarugenge prison where he is being held this Saturday, March 25, along with other members of the Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change (MRDC). —the authorities consider him a terrorist—whose leader he is, such as Callixte Nsabimana, alias Sankara, sources told the newspaper New times.

Government spokesperson Yolande Makolo qualified on CNN that the pardon “does not lift the sentence” and thanked the United States and Qatar for helping to meet these conditions for his release, which he also specified it comes after a letter of forgiveness from Rusesabagina to President Kagame. Qatar is expected to arrange the departure of Rusesabagina – who also holds Belgian citizenship – from Rwanda before he is reunited with his relatives in the United States.

Rusesabagina was arrested in August 2020 and sentenced to 25 years in prison by the Rwandan Supreme Court for his role in leading the MRDC, the political wing of the rebel group the National Liberation Front (FLN), which claimed responsibility for several attacks between 2018 and 2019 resulting in at least nine deaths.

The United Nations condemned that the detention was carried out arbitrarily and under strange circumstances, besides questioning the impartiality of the trial. On the other hand, he recalled Rusesabagina’s record as a critic of Kagame’s government and defense of human rights.

Rusesabagina is world famous for the film Hotel Rwanda. As Acting Manager of Hotel Mille Collines in Kigali, managed to protect more than 1,200 Tutsis and moderate Hutus within the establishment during the 1994 genocide — in which nearly 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred — exploiting their contacts.