Prosecutors have filed an appeal against the sentence of Paul Rusesabagina, the man portrayed as a hero in a Hollywood movie about the Rwandan genocide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rusesabagina, 67, was sentenced to 25 years in jail last month after being found guilty of backing a rebel group behind deadly attacks in 2018 and 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rwandan prosecutors had sought a life sentence against him and had indicated they were not happy with the decision to hand a lesser punishment than they had wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rusesabagina had pulled out of the trial, which rights groups, supporters and his family denounced as a sham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Neither he nor his lawyers were in court for the verdict, in which his co-defendants were sentenced for between three and 20 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Wednesday, Rusesabagina\u2019s daughter Carine Kanimba said the prosecution\u2019s move to appeal against the sentence showed the trial was politically motivated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is not clear from the prosecutor’s statement on Wednesday whether the appeal is against the jail sentence or the wider ruling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It noted that it had filed “an appeal against the judgement of the High Court of 20 September 2021” referring to the case against Rusesabagina and his co-accused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The appeal court is to later decide on the date when it will start hearing the appeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BBC News Africa<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Prosecutors have filed an appeal against the sentence of Paul Rusesabagina, the man portrayed as a hero in a Hollywood movie about the Rwandan genocide. Rusesabagina, 67, was sentenced to 25 years in jail last month after being found guilty of backing a rebel group behind deadly attacks in 2018 and 2019. Rwandan prosecutors had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27983,"featured_media":27062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_paywall_metabox":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[161],"tags":[31,1838],"class_list":["post-27060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-featured","tag-paul-rusesabagina"],"yoast_head":"\n