Rusesabagina's lawyers, family resort to lies about torture

The family and PR machine of terror suspect Paul Rusesabagina has come up with a fictitious scheme alleging that he was subjected to torture in a bid to have him set free. Among others, evidence collected from the Belgian Prosecutor’s Office and the FBI, pins Rusesabagina on funding an armed terror group whose attacks on Rwandan soil between 2018 and 2019 claimed nine lives.

Desperate times require desperate measures, they say.

After unsuccessfully trying all tricks in the book to have terror suspect Paul Rusesabagina released, his family and PR machine came up with a fictitious scheme alleging that he was subjected to extreme torture including being held in solitary confinement for more than 260 days.

Rusesabagina, a former hotelier, is now on trial in Rwanda where he faces nine counts linked to terrorism. Among others, he and his co-accused were allegedly involved in terror attacks on Rwandan soil between 2018 and 2019 which claimed nine lives.

The bizarre  claims by his support base were made during a virtual press conference organised a couple of days ago by Kitty Kurth, President of Kurth Lampe Worldwide Ideas, a spokesperson of the Paul Rusesabagina Hotel Rwanda Foundation (PRHRF), his American and Canadian lawyers, and three of his eldest children.

These allegations of torture are serious. At the beginning of this planned stunt, Professor Brian Endless, claims that Rusesabagina was abducted from his home in the US and not in Dubai as he himself alleged, and then drugged, shackled, and taken to Kigali.

But during trial, the Court heard how Bishop Constantin Niyomwungeri tricked Rusesabigina into coming to Kigali to be apprehended because he had been shocked by his terrorist activities. Niyomwungeri revealed that he had to lie to Rusesabagina about the jet’s destination to get him apprehended. Besides Rusesabagina who thought that the plane was heading to Burundi, the pilot and cabin crew knew they were flying to Kigali.

However, Rusesabagina’s PR machine claimed that Rwanda violated the US law in abducting one of its residents to create uproar within the State Department and other government institutions. But this lie is not going to work.

The most extraordinary allegation made by Endless is that during his first days of detention, Rusesabagina was held in an “abattoir” where he could hear screams from prisoners, including women, who would cry for help till their voices died down.

Fact is that Rusesabagina was held at Remera Police Station in Kigali before he was produced in court and television footage is available showing a smiling Rusesabagina being interviewed from his room which had a bed and mosquito next. Rusesabagina told reporters that he had had pasta for dinner.

Allegations that Rusesabagina had his arms and legs tied up, his nose and mouth tied and that a soldier put his boot on his neck - a method akin to the US police choke and hold practice - are far fetched too.   Contrary to the claim that he was detained in solitary confinement, those who know his prison cell testify that it's more of a VIP facility than a place fit for a terrorist suspect.

Professor Phil Clark, Lecturer at SOAS University in London questions why Rusesabagina’s friends changed their story. “Why their story changed (first he was bound, drugged onto flight in Dubai, which court debunked, then claimed this occurred on tarmac in Kigali)? Why have they waited for 300 days to allege torture and solitary confinement?” Clark commented in a tweet.

Analysts believe that resorting to these torture fabrications, Rusesabagina’s lawyers and family want to attract the media and the outside world’s attention and divert them from the damning evidence collected from the Belgian Prosecutor’s Office and the FBI, testimonies of the 20 co-accused, and key witnesses including a prominent US scholar Professor Michelle Martin who worked as a volunteer at Rusesabagina’s foundation.

It was revealed that the lawyers and family members of Rusesabagina used these unverified claims of torture to write to the State Department, and the UN Rapporteur on torture so that they ramp up pressure on the government of Rwanda for Rusesabagina to be released and returned to Belgium or the US.

Despite Rusesabagina’s antics in withdrawing from attending the trials a couple of months ago, and the subsequent theatrics by his lawyers and family, the trial is going on. And it will conclude when everyone involved is heard.

It is worth recalling that these trials are held in the glare of the media both national and international, as well as diplomats based in Kigali and is aired through different social media outlets and television channels. This request for the release of Rusesabagina makes a mockery of the plight of the victims of the terrorist acts committed by his armed militias, the Front for National Liberation, who were completely ignored during more than an hour of his family's virtual press conference.

Was it also a coincidence that during the Q&A, the organisers selectively chose questions favourable to their false narrative like the well-known genocide denier Peter Verlinden?

They claim that Rusesabagina cannot be visited and his fundamental rights to choose his lawyers were denied. But he had two Rwandan lawyers of his choice before he stopped attending the hearings when evidence against him became overwhelming.

The fact that the Rwanda Bar Association denied Rusesabagina’s foreign lawyers accreditation to work in Rwanda is understandable. It is the same situation with Rwandan barristers. They cannot just go to work anywhere in Europe or the US without following proper protocols.

As for the falsehood of solitary confinement, Rusesabagina has been visited by the Belgian representation in Rwanda and he can be visited upon request and in accordance with existing rules. The latest move by Rusesabagina’s PR machine underscores the misjudgment of Rwanda’s resolve to see that justice is done in this trial.

No matter how pushy, or how long they keep recycling the same lies, the law will take its course to deliver a fair trial to Rusesabagina, and justice to the victims of his terror activities.