'Hotel Rwanda' hero Paul Rusesabagina has been convicted of terrorism charges
- Paul Rusesabagina, who inspired the film "Hotel Rwanda," was convicted of terrorism charges in Rwanda on Monday.
- He was accused of forming an illegal armed group, according to multiple reports.
- The former hotel manager saved the lives of over 1,000 people during the Rwandan genocide.
Paul Rusesabagina, the man who inspired "Hotel Rwanda" after he was credited with saving the lives of over 1,000 people during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, has been convicted of terrorism charges, according to multiple reports on Monday.
Rusesabagina, who was charged alongside 20 others, was convicted of forming an illegal armed group, joining a terror group, and funding a terror group, the Associated Press reported. The verdict is still out on charges of murder, abduction, and armed robbery.
"He founded a terrorist organization that attacked Rwanda. He financially contributed to terrorist activities. He approved monthly provisions of funds for these activities He invented a code to hide these activities," Judge Beatrice Mukamurenzi said in her ruling, according to the New York Times.
The ruling comes more than a year after Rusesabagina was accused of supporting the Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change, the armed wing of his opposition political platform that claimed responsibility for deadly attacks in the southern part of Rwanda in recent years.
Rusesabagina's family said he was kidnapped in Dubai and brought back to Rwanda involuntarily, and that he is innocent, AP reported.
Human rights groups have denounced Rusesabagina's trial in statements to the New York Times, saying it was nothing more than a means to silence opposition to Rwanda's president, Paul Kagame, whom Rusesabagina is a critic of.
Three dozen US senators also wrote to Kagame and urged Rusesabagina's release last year, and Rwanda has since insisted that Rusesabagina would get a fair trial.
But the trial casts a shadow on Rusesabagina's once-hailed acts of bravery during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, which saw 800,000 people, mostly from the Tutsi ethnic minority, murdered by extremists from the majority Hutu group, the BBC reported.
Rusesabagina was credited with saving the lives of over 1,000 people by sheltering them at the hotel he managed. His story was later portrayed by Don Cheadle in the Oscar-nominated 2004 movie "Hotel Rwanda."
In 2005, he was awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom by then-President George W. Bush.