Former Prime Minister of Burundi, Alain-Guillaume Bunyoni, has appeared in court, accused of undermining national security and insulting the president.
A witness on condition of anonymity, said everyone was surprised to see him specifying that the accused wore the green uniform of prisoners in Burundi.
A judicial source during the hearing said his pre-trial detention in Ngozi prison, in the north of the country, was extended.
The former prime minister, arrested last month in the capital Bujumbura, was formally charged on Friday by three high court judges sitting behind closed doors.
He is accused of undermining the internal security of the state, undermining the proper functioning of the national economy, and personal enrichment.
Alain-Guillaume Bunyoni , who had served as Prime Minister since June 2020, was removed from office on September 7 by President Evariste Ndayishimiye and replaced by Interior Minister Gervais Ndirakobuca.
Five days earlier, the Head of State had denounced in a speech the desire for a “coup d’etat” on the part of those who believe themselves “almighty” and are trying to “sabotage” his action.
Bunyoni had long been seen as the regime’s true number two since the political crisis of 2015 and the leader of the hardliners among the generals working behind the scenes of power.
Since the end of a civil war which ravaged the country between 1993 and 2006 and claimed 300,000 lives, the country has been held in an iron grip by the regime, thanks to the Imbonerakure, the ruling party’s youth league, the CNDD-FDD, and the National Intelligence Service.
Since its independence in 1962, Burundi has been the scene of numerous massacres and conflicts between the Hutu and Tutsi communities, respectively estimated at 85% and 14% of its population.
Burundi, landlocked in the Great Lakes region, is the poorest country in the world in terms of GDP per capita according to the World Bank, which estimates that 75% of its 12 million inhabitants live below the poverty line.
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