Burundi: Floriane Irangabiye sentenced to ten years in prison

It was the Mukaza court in the commercial city of Bujumbura that sentenced her. Floriane Irangabiye should also pay a fine of one million Burundian francs. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

The verdict fell on Monday, sources familiar with the matter told SOS Médias Burundi.

“She was found guilty of undermining territorial integrity and of collaborating with armed groups in particular,” say our sources.

Floriane Irangabiye was particularly charged with “recruiting for Red-Tabara”, a Burundian armed group based in the province of South Kivu, eastern DRC and considered by the Burundian authorities as “a terrorist movement”.

An independent source who saw the copy of the judgment confirmed the facts.

“To explain this condemnation, they took a report which was made by the SNR (National Intelligence Service) and imitated his signature. They wrote that Floriane acknowledged all the charges and that she asked forgiveness for these facts. But it’s a lie”, say judicial sources.

This Monday, the collaborator of the exiled radio station “Igicaniro” and her lawyers were not at the Mukaza court to be notified of the decision.

Floriane Irangabiye appeared in a closed trial on December 16. She was assisted by three lawyers, one of whom was appointed by the Association of Women Lawyers of Burundi.

This activist in the Movement of women and girls for peace and security, born in exile in Rwanda, has been living in Kigali for more than seven years.

She was arrested on her way to Burundi in late August 2022 before being detained in the intelligence cell in the commercial city of Bujumbura for several days.

She is detained in the central prison of Muyinga (north-eastern Burundi) for the moment.

Several civil society and human rights organizations and journalists denounced her imprisonment.

They call her detention illegal and demand her release.

“We demand that justice be done and that she be released because the charges against her are fabricated,” say sources familiar with the case.

The activist’s lawyers appealed.