Bujumbura : brief appearance of journalist Kenny Claude Nduwimana

Local journalist Kenny Claude Nduwimana briefly appeared at the First Instance Court in the commercial city Bujumbura on Thursday. He was given a new appointment for next July. For good reason, his co-accused did not appear at the public hearing on Thursday. A new plaintiff has also joined the case. He faces more than twenty years in prison. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

Kenny Claude Nduwimana was watched by several police officers, noted colleagues and an SOS Médias Burundi reporter. In this Thursday’s hearing, he was accompanied by his two lawyers.

The judges did not allow the few colleagues who were in court to take images.

“You need special written permission to be allowed to take images,” they explained to journalists covering the hearing.

Accusations

According to the citation that SOS Médias Burundi saw, Kenny Claude Nduwimana is prosecuted for “endangering the internal security of the State, insulting public authority agents and disclosing false information.” These crimes carry a prison sentence of more than twenty years, according to the penal code in force in the small East African nation.

Put the nail in

On Thursday, the Mukaza Court, which sentenced journalist Floriane Irangabiye to 10 years in prison in January 2023, informed Mr. Nduwimana that there is a new complainant. This is police colonel Alfred Innocent Museremu, the former commissioner in charge of internal intelligence at the SNR (National Intelligence Service). The latter, according to the testimony of the relatives of journalist Kenny Claude Nduwimana and himself, confiscated equipment from the journalist worth nearly 43 million five hundred thousand Burundi francs in 2021, while in office. The PNB (Burundi National Police) officer was represented by a lawyer. His accusations have not been read. It was decided to postpone the hearing until July this year. The judges explained that Kenny’s co-accused Claude Nduwimana did not appear. This is Médard Muhiza, the former Chargé d’Affaires at the Burundi embassy in Kinshasa, the capital of DR Congo.

Illegal detention?

According to Kenny Claude Nduwimana’s lawyers, his relatives and the concerned person, “the crimes for which he is being prosecuted were fabricated”. They believe that he is a victim of his profession.

“At first, the spokesperson for the ministry in charge of security indicated that Kenny was involved in fraud. Afterwards, they said that he is the owner of an account spreading false information with the aim of tarnishing the image of the country and its leaders.

Secret agents specialized in IT searched his computer and phone. They found nothing compromising. But despite that, they sent him to prison. He is imprisoned simply for having denounced the dispossession of land by administration authorities. He is a victim of his profession as a journalist,” they say.

Since his arrest in early October 2023, this was Kenny Claude Nduwimana’s second appearance. He appeared before the same Court last March. His relatives denounce “delaying measures aimed at keeping him in prison illegally”.