Kirundo : a church pastor suspected of espionage in detention

Amon Binagana, pastor of the Free Methodist Church of Kajaga in Mutimbuzi district, Bujumbura province, western Burundi, has been detained in Kirundo (north) since May. He is accused of espionage and forgery and use of forgery. The concerned person rejects the accusations. For his relatives, the judicial authority in Kirundo only seeks to extract money from him. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

Pastor Amon Binagana has been detained since May 30, 2024 at the Kirundo public prosecutor’s office, according to his relatives. He was transferred there after spending 9 days in the provincial judicial police cell.

“He and another pastor had left for an evangelization mission in Kirundo. Arriving at the home of trader Bitanagira, Pastor Amon Binagana was arrested,” say witnesses.

The wife of the merchant from whom two tons of coffee were seized on May 21 is a member of the Free Methodist Church.

Our sources indicate that intelligence suspected Pastor Amon Binagana of being Rwandan.

“During the interrogation, the police and intelligence thought that Binagana is Rwandan. In fact, he has a Banyamulenge accent when he speaks,” explains a witness to the scene of his arrest.

“The pastor presented his documents to justify himself, in vain,” according to police sources.

“He gave a duplicate of his identity document. But police and intelligence officials suspected him of using false documents. However, after checking, it turned out that the document was issued by the competent authority. We do not know why he is still detained,” the same police sources told SOS Médias Burundi.

According to his relatives, Amon Binagana is a Burundian born in the DRC. He was repatriated in 2000 before settling in Kajaga where he works as a pastor at the Free Methodist church.

His identity documents that he presented were issued to him in 2003 by the Ministry of Repatriation at the time headed by Françoise Ngendahayo.

Judicial sources in Kirundo indicate that the accusations against Binagana are unfounded.

“The prosecutor is dragging out the case just to extract money from this pastor. We know that this is a despicable practice that people resort to enrich themselves illegally,” regret judges of the First Instance Court in the province.

On June 6, Amon Binagana appeared in public hearing at the Kirundo First Instance Court. The court’s ruling will be announced on Monday June 10, SOS Médias Burundi learned.

“It’s really ridiculous, we have learned that the prosecutor and his deputy as well as the president of the bench in Thursday’s trial are asking bribes from this pastor,” lament judges in Kirundo.

“The case has been politicized but the public prosecutor has no convincing argument,” says one of the deputies who does not see the reason for the detention of this man of God.

This was not the first time that Pastor Amon Binagana went to Kirundo as part of his Christianization activities.