Kayanza: four people including a woman sentenced to life jail in a murder case
They were sentenced by the First Instance Court of Kayanza (north Burundi). In addition to this sentence, the detainees will have to pay a fine of 20 million Burundi francs each. A fifth convict received a one-year prison term. He will have to pay a fine of 100 thousand Burundi francs. The five persons were tried in a flagrance trial on Monday. INFO SOS Médias Burundi
All of the convicts had been arrested in a merchant murder case.
42 years old Raphaël Nzobakenga, from Rwegura in the district of Muruta (same province of Kayanza) was murdered on the night of October 27 to 28.
According to our sources in Rwegura, Raphaël Nzobakenga was called by Sarah Nyandwi who happens to be his paternal cousin. The latter, according to the same sources, had contracted a debt of two million Burundi francs to the victim.
She reportedly sought the complicity of a certain Halidi Nahimana, driver at the OTB-Rwegura (Burundi Tea Company) to help her prepare a plan to assassinate her cousin-lender.
This is how he was offered a deal on the night of October 27 to 28.
He left the house immediately with the sum of one million three hundred thousand francs.
According to sources close to the case, the victim rushed to the meeting point. He found two people there : the driver and Sarah Nyandwi.
“They told him they had a certain amount of diesel that they wanted him to buy”, they say.
They all left except the fact that the victim didn’t know what was waiting for him. Arrived in the middle of the forest, the victim was attacked by two men : Stanislas Mbonimpa and Michel Ntibakiranya.
Raphaël Nzobakenga was brutally killed. “They tore out his tongue and his eyes, his right arm was cut off and his throat was cut”, recalls a witness who saw his body.
The first four suspects were apprehended on October 29. The First Instance Court of Kayanza sentenced them to life jail. They will also have to pay each 20 million Burundi francs to the family of the victim.
A fourth convict – Séverin Havyarimana – was sentenced to one year in prison. He will also pay a fine of 100,000 Burundi francs for disrupting the national economy. He helped empty the tank of the OTB vehicle.
Sarah and her accomplices pleaded guilty to “disrupting the national economy” but dismissed all charges relating to the murder of trader Nzobakenga.
