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Paul Rusesabagina in court: The US and the EU Parliament had expressed doubts about a fair trial
Photo: SIMON WOHLFAHRT / AFP
The case caused an international sensation: In Rwanda, the government critic and hero of the internationally acclaimed film »Hotel Rwanda«, Paul Rusesabagina, had to answer for allegations of terrorism.
Now a court has found him guilty.
"He founded a terrorist organization that attacked Rwanda and financially supported terrorist activities," said Judge Beatrice Mukamurenzi after a trial that Rusesabagina's supporters denounced as politically motivated.
The US and the EU Parliament had also expressed doubts about a fair trial.
The ex-hotelier is known as a severe critic of the Rwandan President Paul Kagame.
The public prosecutor's office had demanded life imprisonment for Rusesabagina.
The court has yet to announce the sentence.
Neither the 67-year-old nor his lawyers were present when the verdict was announced in court on Monday.
Rusesabagina is charged with supporting the National Liberation Front (FLN), which is said to have carried out attacks in Rwanda in recent years.
He denies involvement in the attacks, but is one of the founding members of the opposition group MRCD.
The FLN is considered to be their armed arm.
Arrested in unexplained circumstances
Rusesabagina became known through the Hollywood film "Hotel Rwanda" (2004).
It tells how the hotel manager saved the lives of around 1200 people during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
At that time, more than 800,000 Tutsi and Hutu people were killed.
Later Rusesabagina became a sharp critic of the Rwandan President Paul Kagame and went into exile in Belgium.
Since 1996 Rusesabagina lived in exile in the USA and Belgium.
In August last year, he was arrested under suspicious circumstances in Rwanda when he stepped off a plane that he believed was to land in neighboring Burundi.
asc / AFP / dpa