Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
A fighter for Human Rights (HAM) who is known as a hero’Hotel Rwanda‘ Paul Rusesabagina was tried for alleged terrorism cases.
Police said the 67-year-old man was the mastermind behind the terrorists accused of funding the rebel group that carried out the attacks in Rwanda.
However, the family denied the accusations. They insist that Rusesabagina is politically impervious as in the film Don Cheadle. Someone who never commits social deviance and a brave man.
“My father always fought for justice, peace and human rights. Now, his rights are being violated,” said Rusesabagina’s niece and adopted child, Carine Kanimba, quoted by AFP on Monday (20/9).
Rusesabagina is reportedly closely involved with political opposition groups in exile.
In a 2018 video, he pledged support for the National Liberation Front, an armed group considered a terrorist organization by Rwanda.
“The time has come for us to use every possible means to bring about change in Rwanda, because all political means have been tried and failed,” he said.
Two years later, Rusesabagina boarded a plane she believed to be bound for Burundi but instead landed in Rwanda.
He was arrested and tried as an enemy of the state.
Rusesabagina is now the focus of a global campaign led by his daughters Anaise and Carine. They pushed for the release of the father.
US journalist Philip Gourevitch described Rusesabagina as an ordinary person.
“That’s how he seems to think of himself too, as an ordinary person who doesn’t do anything extraordinary, refusing to give in to the madness that surrounds him,” sincerely Gourevitch in his book ‘We Want To Tell You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families, released this year. 1998.
