Rwanda hotel dissident denied food and medicine in prison, family says

Rwanda hotel dissident denied food and medicine in prison, family says

NAIROBI, Kenya – Paul Rusesabagina, the prominent dissident who was portrayed in the Oscar nominated film "Hotel Rwanda", is denied food and medicine at a prison in Rwanda where he is being held on terrorism-related charges , according to his family, lawyers and foundation, even as the 66-year-old complained of poor health.

Mr Rusesabagina told members of his family that prison officials had informed him that they would cut off his access to food, water and medicine from Saturday.

His family and lawyers believe the Rwandan authorities' decision was an attempt to pressure him to return to his trial, which he stopped attending in March after saying he did not expect get justice. Mr. Rusesabagina, the former hotelier whose efforts to save more than 1,200 people during the country's genocide were featured in "Hotel Rwanda", later became a critic of President Paul Kagame's government.

No official reason was given for the new order, and Johnston Busingye, Rwanda's attorney general and justice minister, who oversees the country's prison system, did not immediately respond to calls and a text seeking comment .

 

Mr Rusesabagina's lawyers were due to visit him on Friday but were refused entry to the prison, his lead counsel, Kate Gibson, said. Describing the latest developments as "disturbing," Ms Gibson said the legal team had made an "urgent submission" to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to request an investigation into Mr Rusesabagina's situation.

"It is difficult to imagine a situation of more direct and deliberate harm to an inmate, especially an inmate in poor health," Ms. Gibson told The New York Times.

Mr. Rusesabagina was arrested last August and charged with nine offenses, including murder and forming an armed group accused of organizing deadly attacks in Rwanda. A Belgian citizen and permanent resident of the United States, he had traveled from his home in San Antonio, Texas, to join Constantin Niyomwungere, a pastor who he said invited him to speak to his churches in Burundi, neighboring Rwanda. .

Mr. Rusesabagina was unaware that Mr. Niyomwungere was working as an agent of the Rwandan government and had participated in a plan to attract him to the country. After meeting in Dubai, the two men boarded a private jet that Mr. Rusesabagina thought was going to Burundi – to land in Kigali on August 28 where he was summarily arrested.

Rwandan authorities said Rusesabagina was traveling to Burundi to meet with rebel groups based there and in the border Democratic Republic of Congo.

In the days leading up to his press briefing on August 31, Mr. Rusesabagina was left hand and foot bound, unable to breathe properly or use the toilet, and detained in a place he described as a "slaughterhouse. Where he heard the screams. other detainees, according to a sworn statement from one of his Rwandan lawyers, Jean-Félix Rudakemwa.

Murangira B. Thierry, spokesperson for the Rwanda Investigation Bureau, denied the allegations in the affidavit. The office, he said, "is a professional investigative body which respects human rights."

Mr Rusesabagina's lawyers say they have not only been banned from visiting him, but must also submit any documents they wish to share with him to the authorities in the first place. Previously, all notes lawyers took in meetings with him had to be reviewed by prison officials before they could be released from prison, Ms Gibson said.

 

"Denied access to lawyers of his choice, to the case against him, to the time and resources to prepare his defense," Ms. Gibson said, "the proceedings against Mr. Rusesabagina systematically violated his rights as an accused, to the point that he chose not to participate anymore.

Mr Rusesabagina's family and lawyers say his health has deteriorated since his arrest and he has expressed fears of dying of a stroke.

"The fact that the doctor provided by the Rwandan government prescribed three bottles of water a day, and he is not receiving them, is of particular concern," Kitty Kurth, spokesperson for his foundation, said in a statement on Friday.

Mr. Rusesabagina is a cancer survivor, has cardiovascular problems and complains of severe back pain.

"My family is very scared and worried," Rusesabagina's daughter Anaise Kanimba said on Saturday. "We don't know if his health will come through. We don't know when we'll talk to him next time. It is devastating. "

https://www.uktimenews.com/rwanda-hotel-dissident-denied-food-and-medicine-in-prison-family-says/