The Rwandan state has “crossed the red line”, said on Friday Me Vincent Lurquin, lawyer for Paul Rusesabagina, whose heroic act during the genocide is told in the film “Hotel Rwanda” and who was arrested on the 27th. last August by the Rwandan authorities. The lawyer is waiting for authorizations to go there. According to him, Paul Rusesabagina could only be kidnapped because he had not set foot in Rwanda for years. He obtained Belgian nationality in 1996 and lives in the United States.
“He must be released, even if it means that he is prosecuted on the judicial level, but he cannot be arrested under these conditions”, confirmed Me Vincent Lurquin in Belga on Friday, after having claimed him in the DH.
“We now know more about the circumstances of his arrest. He was returning from the United States and arriving in Dubai when he was asked to board a private jet to take him to Zambia but he ended up in Rwanda, where he has not set foot for years, and was arrested on the basis of an arrest warrant issued by the Rwandan authorities, but of which Belgium does not seem to be aware “, explained Mr. Lurquin.
“We notified the Belgian embassy in Kigali. The consul was able to see Paul Rusesabagina and was able to take note of the indictment drawn up against him, which accuses him of participating in terrorist activities and even of holding Denial of the genocide, “said the lawyer.
Paul Rusesabagina, Hutu and manager of the hotel “Les Mille Collines” in Kigali, sheltered in his establishment more than a thousand Tutsis and moderate Hutus threatened with execution during the genocide in 1994.
He then became a political opponent of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), the party of Paul Kagame, in power in Rwanda since the end of the genocide.
For the human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW), his arrest at the end of August constitutes an enforced disappearance and a serious violation of international law.
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