The case had been described by the United States and others as unfair.
Government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo told The Associated Press on Friday that the presidential order was issued after a request for clemency on behalf of Rusesabagina, a 68-year-old U.S. resident and Belgian citizen. Senior U.S. officials said Rusesabagina arrived late Friday at the home of the Qatari ambassador in the Rwandan capital of Kigali and was expected to leave the country in the coming days.
Qatar foreign ministry spokesman Majid Al-Ansari said in a statement that “the procedure for transfer to the state of Qatar is under way and he will then head to the United States of America. This issue was discussed during meetings that brought together Qatari and Rwandan officials at the highest levels.”
One senior U.S. official said the White House’s goal was to shift from Washington denouncing the case — and Kigali defending its legal system in response — toward a “constructive sequence to work our way mutually, collectively, out of the predicament we found ourselves in.” Rusesabagina was credited with sheltering more than 1,000 ethnic Tutsis at the hotel he managed during Rwanda’s 1994 genocide in which over 800,000 Tutsis and Hutus who tried to protect them were killed. He received the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom for his efforts.
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