In a press conference held this December 12, 2018, the Attorney General of the Republic refuted the accusations made in a video report by the BBC.
On December 4, the British television channel BBC aired a video in which Burundi security services are accused of running secret torture and detention sites to silence the opposition.
Sylvestre Nyandwi: “The liquid shown in the video is the blood of the goats slaughtered by a Muslim neighbor”
Sylvestre Nyandwi, Attorney General of the Republic, says the public prosecutor conducted investigations to verify the facts contained in this video after it was aired but found them wrong.
Mr. Nyandwi says the house described in the video is currently guarded by the police and no agents of the national intelligence service are present. “This measure was taken after the seizure of a large quantity of firearms in that house on 27 November 2015”.
He says the liquid shown in the video is the blood of the goats slaughtered by a Muslim neighbor during the celebration of the Muslim feast of Eid-el-Kabir. “It is confirmed by the servants who slaughtered these animals and their neighbors as well,” he says.
The Attorney General of the Republic says the so-called clandestine prisons that are reported to be scattered in various corners of the country are only imaginary. “The authors of the video claim that without providing any proof of their existence,” he says adding that they confuse police stations and various state services with prisons.
In this report, the BBC denounced the acts of torture and murder allegedly committed by the agents of the national intelligence service in a house located in Kinindo quarter, Ntwarante Avenue, N° 76 in the south of the capital Bujumbura.
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