With his wrists in handcuffs, former hotel manager Rusesabagina - a genocide critic of President Paul Kagame's regime since the 1994 genocide - was shown to the media at the national police headquarters in the capital Kigali on Monday.

The 66-year-old, who was wearing a mouth guard, was silent.

However, he has previously said that he is the victim of a smear campaign in Rwanda.

"Rusesabagina is suspected of being the founder or leader or sponsor or member of a violent armed extremist terrorist force," police spokesman Thierry Murangira said, adding that the charges included terrorism, terrorist financing, arson, kidnapping and murder.

"International cooperation"

The events must have taken place in June and December 2018.

However, Murangira did not reveal where Rusesabagina, who lives in Belgium, was arrested.

According to the authorities, the arrest must have taken place after international cooperation.

Eric Van Duyse, a spokesman for the Belgian Federal Prosecutor's Office, said they had been informed of the arrest but did not know any details.

Paul Rusesabagina was portrayed by Don Cheadle in the Oscar-nominated film "Hotel Rwanda", which tells the story of how the former hotel manager saved 1,268 Tutsis and moderate Hutus from being killed by the Hutu militia Interahamwe during the genocide by hiding them at the Hotel des Diplomates in Kigali.

About 800,000 Tutsis and regime-critical Hutus were assassinated over 100 days before current President Kagame's forces overthrew the then regime.

Accused the regime

Rusesabagina, whose father was a Hutu and his mother a Tutsi, moved from his homeland after the genocide and has since received much international attention.

Among other things, he was awarded the United States' foremost civilian award, the President's Medal of Freedom, 2005.

In Rwanda, he has created anger after statements such as another genocide awaiting, this time by Tutsis against Hutus.

He has also accused President Paul Kagame's government of killing opposition figures, both in Rwanda and abroad, as well as in prisons and torture of activists.

Kagame, for his part, has accused Rusesabagina of using the 1994 genocide for his own financial gain.

Rwandan authorities have identified Rusesabagina as involved in attacks carried out by the rebel group National Liberation Front in southern Rwanda, on the border with Burundi.