On the day the verdict is pronounced, the defendants in pink prison uniforms walk one behind the other into the Supreme Court in Rwanda's capital, Kigali.

But the main defendant, Paul Rusesabagina, is not among them.

The hotel manager, made famous by the film "Hotel Rwanda", has boycotted the court case since March.

The process was a fraud, he said, and justice was not to be expected.

Claudia Bröll

Freelance Africa correspondent based in Cape Town.

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As widely expected, the court found him guilty of creating and supporting a terrorist organization.

Judge Beatrice Mukamurenzi said the group attacked "unarmed citizens who only went about their lives."

The main defendant procured "military material" via the Whatsapp messenger service, asked militias for help and contributed financially to the group's activities.

From hero to terror suspect

At least nine people were killed in attacks in the south of the country in 2018, according to the indictment.

Rusesabagina has admitted that the Rwandan Movement for Democratic Chance (MRCD), which he runs, has an armed wing.

However, he denied being involved and dismissed all charges.

When the film "Hotel Rwanda", nominated for several Academy Awards, was released in 2004, Rusesabagina became world-famous as the man who is said to have hidden more than a thousand people in a hotel and saved many during the 1994 Hutu and Tutsi genocide.

He was honored with the Freedom Medal by the then President of the USA, George W. Bush.

In his homeland, however, Rusesabagina had enemies because he sharply criticized President Paul Kagame.

There were also voices calling the film “fiction”.

Kidnapping by the authorities?

Rusesabagina's kidnapping last August attracted almost as much attention as the film. Originally, he said he wanted to fly from Dubai to Burundi, but the plane landed in Kigali. Several days later, photos of him in handcuffs emerged. Carine Kanimba, one of his daughters, said shortly before the verdict was announced: "We knew that there would never be a fair trial, and now the world knows too." The president is the "only judge in this court".

She also accused the government of violating basic human rights. Her father did not receive the prescribed high blood pressure medication. His health has deteriorated significantly. He was held in solitary confinement for more than eight months. The family is now hoping for international sanctions against the Rwandan government. The sentence was initially not known. The prosecutor had demanded life imprisonment.