Resort Rwanda’s “hero” returns to San Antonio

Paul Rusesabagina, who’s credited with saving greater than 1,000 folks from a genocide within the Nineteen Nineties, returned to San Antonio on Wednesday after enduring 900 days of detention in Rwanda.

Rusesabagina – whose life was dramatized within the movie Resort Rwanda – flown in from Doha, Qatar. His household labored with the Biden administration and San Antonio Congressman Joaquin Castro, amongst others, to safe his launch.

“Our household is lastly reunited,” Rusesabagina’s daughter, Carine Kanimba, tweeted with a photograph saying he had arrived again in San Antonio.

He was taken to Brooke Military Medical Middle for a medical analysis. It’s a frequent vacation spot for former inmates of overseas prisons. WNBA star Brittney Griner was introduced there late final yr after being free of a Russian jail.

Rusesabagina was convicted on terrorism fees for his hyperlinks to teams against the Rwandan authorities – together with the Nationwide Liberation Entrance, which was linked to assaults on the nation in 2018.

The trial, which sentenced him to 25 years, was broadly criticized by worldwide observers. The Rwandan authorities mentioned in an online publish that the conviction was legitimate.

“We’ve heard that earlier than, and I completely disagree,” Castro mentioned. “I obtained secret briefings about precisely what occurred and the proof they declare to have and it simply doesn’t add up.”

Rusesabagina, a Presidential Medal of Freedom winner, has lengthy been a critic of the Rwandan authorities and had known as for regime change, in line with the BBC. This was the motivation for his abduction by Rwandan officers, his household has claimed.

Over the previous two and a half years, the household has launched a global marketing campaign to induce the Rwandan authorities to launch him. They tapped into celebrities and US authorities officers and filed lawsuits in federal courts.

A household consultant advised TPR that Rusesabagina is eager to inform his story.

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