Paul Rusesabagina accuses Rwanda of torturing him in detention
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Beto
Paul Rusesabagina said in Washington that he endured two years and seven months in solitary confinement in a Rwandan prison after his abduction in 2020. Sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2021 and released in March 2023, the former director of the Hôtel des Mille Collines gave the account during a National Endowment for Democracy panel, reports Beto.
Paul Rusesabagina, former director of the Hôtel des Mille Collines in Kigali, says he was tortured and held in solitary confinement for two years and seven months in a Rwandan prison. He gave this account on Thursday 29 October in Washington, during a meeting organised at the headquarters of the National Endowment for Democracy for International Day of Political Prisoners, reports Beto, which relayed comments published by journalist Stanis Bujakera on X.
Rusesabagina also recounted his abduction on 27 August 2020: he says he was lured by a man posing as a pastor, then taken to Rwanda with his hands tied and his head covered. Sentenced in 2021 to 25 years in prison for terrorism, on charges he has always rejected, he was released in March 2023 after his sentence was commuted.
During his address, he attributed his survival to the support of his family and the international community. He cited mobilisation by the US Congress and Senate, the European Union, the Belgian government and humanitarian organisations. Rusesabagina’s story inspired the film “Hotel Rwanda”; he says he sheltered 1,268 people during the 90 days of the 1994 genocide.
His remarks came after a series of public meetings by Rwandan President Paul Kagame, including with 10,000 young people on the cost of internet, on 21 October.
