Burundi : Bunyoni’s sins far from being precise

Burundi’s supreme court announced on Thursday that the attorney general is continuing to dig into new allegations in the Bunyoni case. The spokeswoman for the Supreme Court and the Office of the Attorney General who said so indicated that the prosecutor has new information that could lead to new crimes in the case of former Prime Minister Alain Guillaume Bunyoni. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

It was in a public broadcast by spokespersons for state institutions when the spokesperson for the Attorney General announced it. She was responding to a question from a local reporter.

“Initially, he was prosecuted for undermining the internal security of the State, undermining the national economy and abuse of power for personal interests, to which were added the illegal possession of weapons and contempt of the state”, said Agnès Bangiricenge.

She said that “the prosecutor appealed after his lawyer wanted to oppose his preventive detention. The prosecutor received new information that could lead to new allegations”, she insisted.

One of the hosts of the program wanted to have more clarification on the offense concerning the illegal possession of weapons while Bunyoni is a police general.

“You are the one who sees it and says it like this. If we are talking about illegal possession of weapons, it is because we found other weapons in his home in addition to the weapons he is authorized to have”, she replied angrily.

At the beginning of May this year, Alain Guillaume Bunyoni was transferred to the central prison of Ngozi (northern Burundi) after spending several days in an SNR (National Intelligence Service) cell in the commercial city of Bujumbura.

Human Rights Watch demanded from the Burundian authorities a fair trial and the presence of international observers so that “Bunyoni’s rights are respected”.

The former Hutu rebel under US sanctions had been removed from office by President Évariste Ndayishimiye in early September 2022 in obscure circumstances.