The man who was celebrated as a hero in the movie Hotel Rwanda for saving lives during the Rwanda genocide has been released from prison.

Senior Biden administration officials confirmed to reporters that Rusesabagina had been released from prison in the Rwandan capital Kigali late Friday evening . He was accompanied by US embassy officials and moved to the residence of Qatar's ambassador in Kigali.

He was released after the Rwandan government commuted his sentence of 25 years for terrorism charges. He was sentenced in 2021.

In the coming days the 68-year-old U.S. resident and Belgian citizen will return to the United States, which has been pushing for his release.

Rusesabagina was a hotel manager during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. He rose to fame when Hollywood released the film, where he was played by Don Cheadle, about his actions to protect Tutsis, who sought refuge at the hotel from Hutu death squads. He was credited with protecting and saving the lives of more than 1,000 people during that period.

He's been an outspoken critic of Rwanda's President Paul Kagame and was sentenced in 2021 on terrorism charges. His family says he was kidnapped in 2020 after he boarded a plane in Dubai that he believed was taking him to Burundi.

But the flight landed in the Rwandan capital Kigali instead. Upon his arrival there, he was arrested and put on trial over his ties to the Rwanda Movement for Democratic Change (MRCD) a group that opposes Kagame's rule. Rusesabagina acknowledges having a leadership role within the group, but denies links to the military wing.

Rusesabagina, a vocal critic of Kagame, acknowledged having a leadership role in an opposition group, the Rwanda Movement for Democratic Change (MRCD), but denied responsibility for attacks carried out on Rwanda by its armed wing, the Forces for National Liberation.

The case has been an irritant in Rwanda's relations with Washington. Secretary of State Antony Blinken raised the case with Kagame on a trip last year.

"This is the result of a shared desire to reset US-Rwanda relationship," Stephanie Nyombayire, spokesperson of Rwanda's President Kagame, wrote on Twitter.

The government of Qatar was also involved in the negotiations to release him. The sentences of 18 other prisoners who were convicted alongside him have also been commuted.

Rusesabagina was awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom by then-President George W. Bush in 2005. He is expected to return home to his family in Texas.

"The family of Paul Rusesabagina is pleased to hear the news about his release," a spokesperson for the family said in a statement. "They hope to reunite with him soon."