Rwanda defends arrest of Rusesabagina in controversial movie

Kigali, Feb 17 (IANS) The Rwandan Parliament has called on the European Parliament to retract a resolution condemning the arrest of Paul Rusesabagina in the country.

Rusesabagina, who was portrayed as a humanitarian activist in the controversial Oscar-nominated film "Hotel Rwanda," awaits a trial scheduled for Wednesday on criminal charges over his alleged involvement in a series of deadly attacks by army groups in Southwestern Rwanda in mid-2018, Xinhua reported.

The European Parliament passed a resolution last week to condemn the arrest as an "enforced disappearance, illegal rendition," prompting the Rwandan Parliament to refute in a resolution that the European Parliament's characterization of the case is "unrealistic and baseless."

In the resolution passed Tuesday, the Rwandan Parliament rejected the European side's allegation that the arrest violates Rwanda's obligations under international legal instruments, calling on the latter to stop interfering in the ongoing judicial proceeding.

Rusesabagina was made famous by the film "Hotel Rwanda," where he saved over 1,000 ethnic Tutsis victims during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi, which claimed over 1 million lives. However, some evidence of the tragedy remains disputed.