SACKED BURUNDIAN PRIME MINISTER APPEALS LIFE SENTENCE

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Alain-Guillaume Bunyoni, the prime minister of Burundi, has shown up in court to contest his conviction on accusations that include trying to topple the government, according to witnesses and a judicial source on Tuesday.

One of the most influential members of the dictatorship in the past, Bunyoni served as prime minister from the middle of 2020 until his dismissal in September 2022, a few days after President Evariste Ndayishimiye had forewarned of a purported coup attempt against him.

In December, he received a life sentence in prison for a variety of offences, including conspiring to overthrow the constitutional government, endangering the president’s life with witchcraft, compromising national security, causing economic instability, and engaging in illicit enrichment.

The now 52-year-old army general had entered not guilty pleas to every charge and claimed there was insufficient evidence to convict him.

Monday’s appeal hearing before the Supreme Court, which is being held in Gitega, the political capital, started under tight security.

“General Bunyoni once again categorically denied any attempt to overthrow the government,” one individual who attended the hearing told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Bunyoni reiterated his position that there was a lack of “material evidence and an absence of legal elements” to support the case against him, according to the witness.

The prosecution has also launched an appeal, asserting that Bunyoni’s sentence was too light in terms of fines and the confiscation of assets.

The former prime minister was arrested in April last year in Burundi’s main city of Bujumbura.

He was regarded as the leader of a group of military chiefs known as “the generals,” who held the real political power in Burundi. He was a former minister of internal security and chief of police.

Bunyoni, a close supporter of the late president Pierre Nkurunziza, held a prominent position in the governing CNDD-FDD party from its ascent to power in 2005.

The international community has praised Ndayishimiye for progressively bringing an end to years of Burundi’s isolation under Nkurunziza’s unstable and brutal reign since he took office in June 2020.

However, he hasn’t been able to change Burundi’s appalling human rights record, and the nation is still among the world’s poorest.