He was convicted by a high court in Kigali of involvement in a rebel group blamed for deadly gun, grenade and arson attacks in Rwanda in 2018 and 2019.
KIGALI - Paul Rusesabagina, the "Hotel Rwanda" hero who became a fiercely outspoken government critic, was sentenced on Monday to 25 years in prison on terrorism charges after what his supporters labelled a politically motivated show trial.
Rusesabagina, who used his fame to denounce Rwandan leader Paul Kagame as a dictator, has been behind bars since his arrest in August 2020 when a plane he believed was bound for Burundi landed instead in Kigali. Belgium's foreign ministry said that despite appeals from Brussels, "Rusesabagina did not benefit from a fair and equitable trial".
During the trial, his co-defendants gave conflicting testimony about the level of Rusesabagina's involvement with the FLN and its fighters.
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