In Kigali, a twenty-five-year prison sentence against the hero of the movie “Hotel Rwanda” was confirmed.

Monday, April 4, Court of Appeal Rwanda Confirmed a 25-year prison sentence for “terrorism” for dissident Paul Rossapgina, best known for the film Rwanda HotelRefused to appeal the prosecution, which wanted a harsher punishment. “Considering that he is a first-time offender, the court considers that his sentence should not be increased, because the twenty-five years he has obtained are in line with the weight of his crimes.”Judge François Regis Rokondakovuga said the day after the hearing.

Known as a fierce opponent of President Paul Kagame, Paul Russabagina was convicted in September 2021 for “to establish and belong” To the National Liberation Front (FLN), an armed group accused of carrying out deadly attacks in Rwanda in 2018 and 2019. The prosecution, who has asked for a life sentence, has appealed, hoping to increase his sentence. The prosecutors also appealed the sentences – from three to twenty years in prison – to the twenty defendants with him.

Paul Rossapgina, 67, has long denied the accusations and denounced a trial designed to muzzle his opponent. He was not present on Monday to read the verdict. His family, who continues to warn about his health, announced in mid-January that he “You will not participate[it] Not to set out for the appeal of a political prisoner.”. The accused and his lawyers had already boycotted the majority of the preliminary hearings, denouncing the trial “Policy” As well as ill-treatment in custody.

Arrested in mysterious circumstances

The movie Paul Rusesabagina is famous rwanda hotel, Released in 2004 which tells how the moderate Hutu who ran the Hotel des Mille Collines in Kigali saved more than 1,000 people during the 1994 genocide, during which 800,000 people were killed, according to the United Nations, mostly from the Tutsi minority.

An opponent of more than twenty years to Paul Kagame, whom he accused of authoritarianism and of fomenting anti-Hutu sentiment, Paul Rossabgina has used Hollywood fame to give global resonance to his positions. And he lived since 1996 in exile in the United States and Belgium, before he was arrested in Kigali in 2020 in turbulent circumstances, when he got off a plane he believed was heading to Burundi.