Paul Rusesabagina is an interesting guy.

If you know him at all, it’s probably because a key moment in his life was turned into Hollywood mush in the film Hotel Rwanda. Don Cheadle was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for portraying it, and him. Since then, he’s leveraged that fame into wealth, and been widely lionized for saving lives during the genocide.

But he was never a fan of the post-genocide government or it’s authoritarian head, “President” Kagame. (I put it in quotes because it seems clear that elections in Rwanda have been quite rigged.) He fled first to Belgium, where he continued to be harassed and menaced by pro-government Rwandan goons, and then to a gated community in San Antonio, all the while being quite vocal about the necessity for his country to throw off the yoke of Kagame and truly re-integrate after the wars and killings.

His activism wasn’t limited to speaking out, though. He poured much of his wealth into funding the resistance. About five years ago, he suggested explicitly that non-violence was not enough, and suggested that he himself would be President someday, via the ballot or the bullet or both.

Last year he got on a plane in Dubai with the intention of returning to a safe country near home, presumably with the intention of leading an army against Kagame. It ended badly. No one seems to be sure why, but the private plane landed in the Rwandan capital of Kigali instead, and he was promptly arrested. (My guess is that the Rwandan security forces bribed pilots and aviation executives, but it’s still a mystery.)

Whatever the mechanics, he’s a prisoner of his worst enemies and on trial now. Predictably, the government is charging him with “terrorism”, and thus the story is unlikely to end heroically,

Here are some facts I collected to help myself understand the context of this story.

In 2009, Hutu made up 84% of the Rwandan population, and Tutsi 15%.

During the genocide, Hutu extremists killed an estimated 500,000 to 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu. The world shrugged its shoulders and made a movie.

Kagame is a Tutsi.

Rusesabagina had a Hutu father and a Tutsi mother. His second wife, Tatiana, is Tutsi, and her mother, father, brother, and many extended family were killed in the genocide.

I am indebted to The Daily podcast from the New York Times for telling a version of this story that alerted me to the fact that it existed at all.