{"id":1146,"date":"2021-09-06T15:42:20","date_gmt":"2021-09-06T15:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/rwanda-leader-defends-terrorism-trial-of-genocide-hero"},"modified":"2021-09-06T16:14:51","modified_gmt":"2021-09-06T16:14:51","slug":"rwanda-leader-defends-terrorism-trial-of-genocide-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/rwanda-leader-defends-terrorism-trial-of-genocide-hero","title":{"rendered":"Rwanda leader defends terrorism trial of genocide hero"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Rwanda<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Rwandan President Paul Kagame dismissed widespread criticism of the terrorism trial of the polarising \u201cHotel Rwanda\u201d hero hailed for saving over 1,000 lives during the country\u2019s 1994 genocide.<\/p>\n

He said Paul Rusesabagina, now a prominent Kagame critic whose detention and trial has raised global alarm, was in the dock not because of his fame but because people had died as a result of his later actions.<\/p>\n

Rusesabagina, 67, faces a verdict on September 20 on charges of being a terrorist mastermind who financed a rebel group behind a string of deadly attacks in the East African country.<\/p>\n

He and his family have long rejected the allegations and say the former hotelier whose actions during the genocide inspired the 2004 Hollywood film is the victim of a politically motivated show trial.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors are seeking a life sentence for Rusesabagina, who they accuse of supporting the rebel National Liberation Front (FLN), a group blamed for attacks inside Rwanda in 2018 and 2019 that killed nine people.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is here being tried for that. Nothing to do with the film. Nothing to do with celebrity status,\u201d Kagame said in a nationally televised interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is about the lives of Rwandans that were lost because of his actions and because of the organisations that he belonged to or led,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat he is being tried for and accused of is having a hand in these armed groups and terrorists\u2026 This man deserves to be fairly tried in the court of law and is going to be tried as fairly as that can be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rusesabagina has denied any involvement in the attacks but was a founder of the Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change (MRCD), an opposition group of which the FLN is seen as the armed wing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHotel Rwanda,\u201d told how the former manager of Kigali\u2019s Hotel des Mille Collines saved more than 1,200 people who sheltered there during the genocide in which an estimated 800,000 were slaughtered, most of them ethnic Tutsis.<\/p>\n

Rusesabagina, a Hutu, subsequently became an outspoken Kagame critic and lived in exile in the US and Belgium since 1996.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. Rwandan President Paul Kagame dismissed widespread criticism of the terrorism trial of the polarising \u201cHotel Rwanda\u201d hero hailed for saving over 1,000 lives during the country\u2019s 1994 genocide. He said Paul Rusesabagina, now a prominent Kagame critic whose detention and trial has raised global alarm, was in the dock not because of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":1145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,28,14],"tags":[760,763,1186,1187,758],"class_list":["post-1146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-rwanda","tag-genocide-hero","tag-leader","tag-rwanda"],"yoast_head":"\nRwanda leader defends terrorism trial of genocide hero - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rwandan President Paul Kagame dismissed widespread criticism of the terrorism trial of the polarising \u201cHotel Rwanda\u201d her ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/rwanda-leader-defends-terrorism-trial-of-genocide-hero\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rwanda leader defends terrorism trial of genocide hero\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rwandan President Paul Kagame dismissed widespread criticism of the terrorism trial of the polarising \u201cHotel Rwanda\u201d her ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/rwanda-leader-defends-terrorism-trial-of-genocide-hero\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-09-06T15:42:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-09-06T16:14:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2021\/09\/img-61363e60b4159.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"460\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"287\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/rwanda-leader-defends-terrorism-trial-of-genocide-hero#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/rwanda-leader-defends-terrorism-trial-of-genocide-hero\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Rwanda leader defends terrorism trial of genocide hero\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-09-06T15:42:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-09-06T16:14:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/rwanda-leader-defends-terrorism-trial-of-genocide-hero\"},\"wordCount\":352,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/rwanda-leader-defends-terrorism-trial-of-genocide-hero#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2021\/09\/img-61363e60b4159.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Rwanda\",\"genocide hero\",\"leader\",\"Rwanda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/rwanda-leader-defends-terrorism-trial-of-genocide-hero#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/rwanda-leader-defends-terrorism-trial-of-genocide-hero\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/rwanda-leader-defends-terrorism-trial-of-genocide-hero\",\"name\":\"Rwanda leader defends terrorism trial of genocide hero - 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