Cibitoke : the public prosecutor relieves the prison population in the provincial dungeon

Magistrates from the Cibitoke public prosecutor’s office (northwest Burundi) are accused of corruption. This happens at a time when the public prosecutor’s office decided to relieve the provincial dungeon. Nearly 50 illegally incarcerated detainees have been released. Residents close to the dungeon welcome this gesture and ask that the delay in case management be resolved quickly. The regional prosecutor reassures.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

On Tuesday, September 10, the public prosecutor’s office at the Cibitoke First Instance Court released 48 detainees, including 10 minors, out of more than 160 who were in the provincial police station dungeon, which has a capacity of only 40 to 50.

Those who were released were incarcerated for minor offences, according to a magistrate.

Jean Paul Nsavyimana, the prosecutor at the Cibitoke Court, explains the prison overcrowding by the fact that some convicted prisoners remained in the cell due to the lack of vehicles to transport them to the central prison of Mpimba in the commercial city of Bujumbura, especially in this context of severe fuel shortage.

But he reassures and urges human rights defenders to support transport and especially the extension of the provincial cell of the police station, which is very dilapidated and cramped.

Prisoners denounce the delay in legal proceedings because most of them spend more than 3 to 5 months without being heard by a judge.

According to them, “cases of corruption attributable to magistrates have become very frequent”.

Unanimously, these detainees are asking for their release and above all to be treated like human beings.

For residents living near this dungeon, this is a commendable act, but it is not enough. They are asking that the decongestion continue, because they deplore the very poor conditions in which these detainees live.