Bubanza High Court has just sentenced Iwacu reporters to two years and six months’ imprisonment and each of them fined BIF one million. Adolphe Masabarakiza, their driver has been acquitted.
Iwacu reporters
Their accusations would have been changed. They would have been accused of an “impossible attempt of complicity in undermining the state internal security”. Thereafter, their lawyers promise to give more details. In addition, Iwacu newspaper will make an appeal to another jurisdiction.
Agnès Ndirubusa, Christine Kamikazi, Egide Harerimana and Térence Mpozenzi, the four Iwacu reporters were arrested on 22 October when going to investigate the clashes that erupted between armed groups and security forces in Musigati commune in Bubanza province. They were accused of complicity in undermining the state internal security.
In a public hearing held on 30 December, the Public Prosecutor requested a fifteen-year imprisonment sentence for those journalists, seizure of their belongings including the car, phones, notebooks and camera. The Public Prosecutor also demanded the judge to deny their right to vote for five years as well as their civic rights for 20 years.
IWACU Open Data
