Prosecutors allege Paul Rusesabagina was leader of rebel group responsible for deadly attacks

Paul Rusesabagina, a businessman whose role in saving more than 1,000 lives inspired the film Hotel Rwanda, has appeared in court in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, facing charges of terrorism and murder.

Rwandan authorities have accused Rusesabagina of being “the founder, leader, sponsor and member of violent, armed, extremist terror outfits … operating out of various places in the region and abroad”. The dissident faces a lengthy prison sentence, potentially for life.

Lawyers for Paul Rusesabagina, who is detained in Kigali, say he faces serious risk of torture

Lawyers for Paul Rusesabagina have called on a UN investigator to immediately intervene in the case of the human rights activist – and inspiration behind the film Hotel Rwanda – who is being detained in Rwanda and is alleged to face a “serious risk of torture”.

The letter to Nils Melzer, the special rapporteur on torture, comes one week after Rusesabagina, a prominent critic of the Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, was revealed to have been brought to Kigali from Dubai in what his lawyers have called an illegal rendition.

Movements of ‘Hotel Rwanda hero’ arrested in Kigali may have been closely tracked by spyware say supporters

Rwandan dissidents say they suspect that Paul Rusesabagina, the inspiration behind the film Hotel Rwanda, was hacked or otherwise tracked using surveillance technology in the days before his arrest this week by the Rwandan government, raising questions about the country’s alleged use of spyware.

Rusesabagina, 66, who won international acclaim for saving 1,200 Rwandans during the country’s genocide – who has been more recently a prominent critic of Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame, appears to have been apprehended by authorities while he was on a trip to Dubai and reportedly left the United Arab Emirates on a private jet last week.