Lawyer of Rusesabagina (Hotel Rwanda) has proof President Kagame ordered kidnapping

The kidnapping of Paul Rusesabagina, the Belgian Rwandan known for the film "Hotel Rwanda", was ordered by Rwandan President Paul Kagame. At a press conference on Wednesday, Rusesabagina's Belgian lawyer Vincent Lurquin presented an invoice for the private flight, with which the former hotelier was abducted from Dubai to Kigali. That invoice was sent to the address of the Rwandan presidency. The entourage once again called for Rusesabagina's release because of his precarious health.

Rusesabagina has been imprisoned in Rwanda since August 2020 after he was abducted into the country. The 67-year-old was invited to Burundi, but in reality it was a ruse to get him to Rwanda: he was flown from Dubai to Kigali in a private jet.

Charges against this abduction were filed in Brussels and in the United States. A Brussels investigating judge went to Athens, the seat of the airline, and found an invoice for a private flight from Athens to Dubai, from Dubai to Kigali and finally from Kigali back to Athens. Through the American investigation Lurquin got hold of a copy of this invoice.

The invoice, worth 120,000 euros, shows that the pilot already flew to Dubai on 19 August, but only made the transfer to Kigali eight days later. "So this operation had been prepared for some time," Rusesabagina's daughter Carine Kanimba said at the press conference. Also striking: the invoice was sent to the "office of the president" in Kigali, which for Lurquin is "inescapable proof" of involvement at the highest level in Rwanda in the kidnapping of a Belgian citizen. "You know what happened next: my client was tortured, locked up and put on a show trial," the lawyer said.

Lurquin demanded "urgently" the release of his client and a transfer to Belgium. The man's entourage again cited his precarious health. A few weeks ago he suffered a stroke. "His lip is deformed and half of his face is paralysed, a Belgian embassy employee and someone from the US authorities who could see him confirmed to us," said Kanimba. "After repeated insistence by us, he was sent to the hospital, but the doctors who saw him there said it was 'psychological'. The Belgian embassy has been looking for an independent doctor, but no one is found: everyone is scared." As far as Kanimba is concerned, her father should therefore be released as soon as possible.

Earlier this month, the Rwandan Court of Appeal confirmed Rusesabagina's conviction to 25 years in prison for terrorism. Rusesabagina, known as a virulent opponent of Kagame, was sentenced in September to 25 years in prison for "founding and belonging to" the National Liberation Front (FLN), an armed group accused of carrying out deadly attacks in Rwanda in 2018 and 2019.

His entourage stressed on Wednesday that Rusesabagina did not receive a fair trial. Foreign Minister Sophie Wilmès also spoke out in similar terms after the conviction.

(TOM)

Paul Rusesabagina before his kidnapping in 2019. - © BELGA PHOTO NICOLAS MAETERLINCK