The Biden administration¡¯s declaration that Paul Rusesabagina has been ¡°wrongfully detained¡± in Rwanda is a welcome departure from nearly three decades of American indulgence of Paul Kagame, the country¡¯s autocratic president.
This sets a useful precedent for other countries that have until now turned a blind eye to Kagame¡¯s dictatorial drift.
Rusesabagina, whose role in saving more than 1,000 lives during the 1994 Rwandan genocide was the subject of the film ¡°Hotel Rwanda,¡± was arrested in Kigali in 2020 after what his lawyers and family described as a rendition operation in which he was picked up in Dubai. He had been an outspoken critic of the Kagame regime. Following what human-rights groups denounced as a ¡°show trial,¡± Rusesabagina was sentenced last fall to 25 years in prison on terrorism charges.
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