Paul Rusesabagina
Genocide hero turned opposition figure
Released in 2022 after two years of unjust detentionThe hotel manager who saved more than 1,200 people during the 1994 genocide, later lured onto a plane, abducted to Kigali and sentenced to 25 years in prison for his opposition to the government.
Paul Rusesabagina is the hotel manager who saved more than 1,200 people during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, sheltering them in the Hotel des Mille Collines in Kigali. His story was told to the world in the film Hotel Rwanda. He later became an outspoken critic of the government from exile and founded an opposition movement.
In August 2020 he was lured onto a flight he believed was bound for Burundi. It landed in Kigali. What followed was an enforced disappearance: days in unknown locations, denied access to lawyers and to his heart medication, paraded in handcuffs for the cameras and charged with terrorism. In September 2021 he was sentenced to 25 years in prison in a trial widely condemned as unjust.
In December 2022 he was released after writing a letter to President Kagame and allowed to leave for the United States. His case remains a warning to every exiled Rwandan that the regime's reach does not end at the border.
History
1994
Saves more than 1,200 people by sheltering them in the Hotel des Mille Collines in Kigali.
August 2020
Lured onto a flight he believed was bound for Burundi and taken to Kigali, then held in unknown locations without access to lawyers.
September 2021
Sentenced to 25 years in prison in a trial widely condemned as unjust.
December 2022
Released after writing a letter to President Kagame and allowed to leave for the United States.
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