Kirundo : a CNDD-FDD activist sentenced to four years in prison for defamation of President Neva and the secretary general of the ruling party

Thobias Nsabiyumva, 48 years old, was tried on Wednesday in a flagrante delicto trial. It is the First Instance Court of Kirundo (northern Burundi) that sentenced him. He was found guilty of “defamation and insults against President Évariste Ndayishimiye and the secretary general of the CNDD-FDD, Révérien Ndikuriyo”. The concerned person confessed to the facts but explained that he acted under the influence of alcohol.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

Thobias Nsabiyumva was sentenced to four years in prison and a fine of 50 thousand Burundi francs. In a flagrante delicto trial that took place at the Kirundo First Instance Court on January 22, 2025, he did not deny the facts.

The remarks for which this CNDD-FDD activist was convicted were made on the evening of January 19 while sharing a drink with his friends. The public prosecutor accused him of saying in particular that “President Évariste Ndayishimiye makes hasty decisions without consulting his advisors” and that “the CNDD-FDD party is in agony”, wishing a terrible death and a painful end to Réverien Ndikuriyo, secretary general of the CNDD-FDD, the former Hutu rebellion in power in Burundi since 2005.

Judges of the Kirundo court therefore found him guilty of “defamation and insults towards the head of state and the secretary general of the CNDD-FDD”.

Thobias Nsabiyumva also reportedly said that “Burundian people are destroying themselves”.

“I was in a drunken stupor when I said these words. And besides, I don’t know how I ended up in detention. I woke up in a dungeon”, the convicted man explained to the judges without denying the facts he is accused of.

Thobias Nsabiyumva, who will have to be transferred to the central prison of Ngozi (north) to serve his sentence, is held in a dungeon of the provincial prosecutor’s office.

The man who is originally from the province of Kayanza, still in the north of the country, had just been released as part of the presidential pardon.

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The provincial building of Kirundo (SOS Médias Burundi)