How does Paul Kagame, Rwanda’s president, get away with it?

ON SEPTEMBER 20TH a court in Rwanda found Paul Rusesabagina guilty of links to terrorist groups and sentenced him to 25 years in jail. His real crime, however, was to oppose President Paul Kagame. Mr Rusesabagina had been kidnapped in order to stand trial in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, in proceedings widely condemned as a travesty of justice. That has been the fate, and much worse, of many who have stood up to Mr Kagame. Mr Rusesabagina, however, is no ordinary Rwandan. A hotelier who courageously saved hundreds of lives during the Rwandan genocide in 1994, in which about 500,000 people were killed, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from George W. Bush in 2005. A celebrated film, “Hotel Rwanda”, was based on his life. Yet his appalling treatment and the absurd sentence has scarcely caused a ripple of criticism or pushback. America and Belgium both expressed “concern”. That’s it. Why?

Mr Rusesabagina’s treatment is not an isolated case. Evidence of the brutality and ruthless repression of the Rwandan regime has mounted. Mr Kagame was the de facto leader of the country from 1994 to 2000, when he became president. He long ago quashed any semblance of democracy in Rwanda, and is regularly returned to power with over 90% of the vote. Opponents abroad have been shot or strangled to death. None of these murders has been pinned directly on Mr Kagame’s intelligence services, but the president has openly said that the victims got what they deserved. A recent book by Michela Wrong, a British journalist, chronicles in detail the murder of Mr Kagame’s former intelligence chief in South Africa—and she leaves no doubt as to who she thinks ordered the hit. Mr Kagame has denied that Rwanda was involved in the killing.