Burundi: indignation after the conviction of 34 personalities in exile
A policeman in a street in Bujumbura.
(illustrative image) AFP PHOTO / Landry NSHIMIYE
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3 min
Thirty-four Burundian personalities in exile, including political opponents, figures of civil society and famous journalists, were sentenced, sparking outrage from human rights defenders.
These sentences, kept secret for months, were made public by posting last week, the same day that political dialogue between the EU and Burundi resumed.
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Officially, the 34 personalities in exile were sentenced more than 7 months ago, on June 23 to be precise, according to an official document signed by the clerk of the Supreme Court, and posted publicly on the same day the
dialogue government-European Union resumed
after six years of hiatus.
Problem: another document signed by the President of the Supreme Court, Emmanuel Gateretse, this same June 23, had returned the delivery of the verdict ten days later.
What happened ?
How does the Burundian justice explain this quack?
No manager wanted to respond to our requests.
Some of the human rights defenders wonder when this trial took place, which no one has ever heard of, even among their contacts in the Burundian justice ministry.
But everyone agrees on one point: it is no coincidence that this verdict was made public on the very day when discussions for the lifting of European sanctions resumed.
Especially since Brussels asks, among other things, of Gitega, the end of political intolerance, the rehabilitation of civil society and
the media destroyed in 2015
, or even the return to the country of all these personalities in exile.
By sentencing them to life imprisonment, the Burundian authorities wanted to remind the European Union that these questions are for the moment "
a red line
" not to be crossed, explains a diplomatic source.
The main organizations of Burundian civil society in exile released a press release denouncing a "
parody of justice
" which aims to silence them.
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