KIGALI: Rwandan prosecutors said on Wednesday they have filed an appeal against a court ruling that sentenced"Hotel Rwanda" hero Paul Rusesabagina to 25 years in prison on terrorism charges.
Prosecutors had sought a sentence of life in prison for Rusesabagina, the former Kigali hotel manager who was accused of backing a rebel group blamed for a spate of attacks in Rwanda in 2018 and 2019. He has been behind bars since his arrest in August 2020, when a plane he believed was bound for Burundi landed instead in Kigali.
The Court of Appeal will decide at a later date when to hear the prosecution's case, a court official told AFP. Kagame had dismissed criticism of the case, saying that Rusesabagina had been in the dock not because of his fame but over the lives lost"because of his actions".