RWANDA has commuted the 25-year prison sentence of ailing “Hotel Rwanda” hero Paul Rusesabagina, a government spokeswoman told AFP today.

Rusesabagina’s sentence imposed in September 2021 has been “commuted by presidential order,” spokeswoman Yolande Makolo said of the case which roused international concern in the West and among rights campaigners.

The announcement comes less than two weeks after President Paul Kagame said Kigali was looking into resolving Rusesabagina’s case.

His supporters say his trial was a sham that was plagued with irregularities while his family has long warned about the 68-year-old’s deteriorating health and voiced fears he could die in prison.

A court in May 2022 upheld the sentences against Rusesabagina and most of his 20 co-defendants who were jailed for between three and 20 years for backing an armed group.

Rusesabagina was the manager of a Kigali hotel and is credited with helping to save about 1,200 lives during the 1994 genocide in which about 800,000 people were slaughtered, mainly Tutsis but also moderate Hutus.

Rusesabagina, whose story inspired the Oscar-nominated 2004 movie “Hotel Rwanda” starring US actor Don Cheadle, became a vocal critic of Kagame, founding his own party.

He emerged as a staunch government critic whose tirades against Kagame led him to be treated as an enemy of the state.

Rights groups accuse Rwanda, ruled with an iron fist by Kagame since the end of the genocide, of cracking down on free speech and opposition.

Last year, the United States said Rusesabagina, who holds Belgian citizenship and a US Green Card, was “wrongfully detained” after a plane carrying him to Burundi was diverted to Rwanda in August 2020.

The Free Paul Rusesabagina website said he has now been detained for 939 days and his family alleged that he was tortured while in custody. – AFP, March 24, 2023.