Cibitoke: three judicial police officers and an administrative officer detained for murder and corruption

Three judicial police officers (OPJ) from the communes of Rugombo and Murwi and a zone chief are detained in the police station cell in Cibitoke (North-West of Burundi) since last Friday. They are prosecuted in a murder and corruption case. Residents demand a severe punishment. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

The case has sparked several comments in this province of the north-west of the country since Friday, when they were arrested.

According to a security source who spoke on condition of anonymity, two of the three OPJs were apprehended in the commune of Murwi. The two are accomplices with the Murwi zone chief, suspected of having arbitrarily arrested a trader during the first half of September. They demanded money from the victim.
The young trader did not comply with their order. They beat him up before locking him up in the custody of Buhayira zone, Murwi commune, where he died.

“A few days later, following the numerous beatings received, my husband gave up his soul,” testified the victim’s wife.

The victim’s family immediately filed a complaint. “The medical expertise showed black and white that the young trader succumbed to his injuries, contrary to the revelations of two judicial police officers and the Murwi zone chief who all spoke of a natural death caused by malaria”, explained a person familiar with the case.

The public prosecutor in Cibitoke immediately arrested the suspects.

The third OPJ meanwhile is suspected of having received an amount of one and a half million Burundian francs by promising traders that he is able to return to them more than a hundred loincloths seized. They had come illegally from the Democratic Republic of Congo. This judicial police officer was assigned to the commune of Rugombo.

After conducting his investigations, the prosecutor ordered the immediate incarceration of this OPJ.

Residents of Cibitoke are delighted with the arrest of three judicial police officers who were known as “champions in matters of corruption, even in small cases”.

They demand that they be judged and severely punished.

While visiting several provinces of Burundi, the minister in charge of justice had recently warned in Cibitoke, “corrupt” OPJs and magistrates.