Rumonge: the provincial court to discourage fraud

Two men were sentenced to 6 years in prison and to pay 500,000 Burundian francs as a fine after being convicted of fuel fraud and damage to the national economy. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

Claver Minani received a six year sentence in prison and a payment of a fine worth 500 thousand Burundian francs.

The high court of Rumonge (south-west of Burundi), which judged him this Friday, charged him with fuel fraud and an attempted escape from the police cell in Rumonge.

The person concerned pleaded guilty to the charges against him by the public prosecutor.

He defended himself for his escape attempt saying he was trying to flee from a police officer who had tried to rob him of a 1.2 million Burundian francs he had on him.

Albert Bandyayera was fined 500 thousand Burundian francs. His 109 bags of cement will be sold and the money from the sale deposited into the public treasury.

Bandyayera was charged with speculation on the cement price. A bag of cement was sold 33,000 francs while the official price is 32,000.

The defendant specified that, as he was buying the cement from the central market of Rumonge, an additional 150 thousand francs was paid as a supplement, a sum intended for the contribution for the party in power. He said “to have included this sum in the sale price of my cement to recover this money given to the CNDD-FDD party”.

The sentence was pronounced in a flagrance trial this Friday at the high court of Rumonge in the south-west of the country.

Since December 2022, Burundian justice has multiplied actions in Rumonge, one of the richest provinces of the small East African nation. Three communal administrators and an adviser to the governor were dismissed, over allegation of misappropriating sheet metal and cement intended for the construction and rehabilitation of schools.

The equipment had been granted by the Presidency of the Republic.

Several bars and mini-depots of drinks have been closed and traders sentenced to up to five years in prison for “illegal trading and speculation”.