Three FNL followers arrested in Ngozi Northern Province

Charles Bizimana, Jérèmie Ndoriyobija and Christian Citegetse have been arrested by the National Intelligence Service in Ngozi Northern Province in the afternoon of 24 July. Olive Nkunzimana, MP elected in Ngozi constituency from the political coalition “Amizero y’Abarundi” says all of them are followers of FNL party, which is not officially recognized by the government. She says they are now detained in the Criminal Investigation Department of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Ngozi Province. “We don’t know the reason why they have been arrested”, she says.

Three young men were arrested by the Head of the National intelligence service in Ngozi province

Nkunzimana says they would be accused of disrupting security. “It is not the first time Charles Nkurunziza is arrested. Before being released, he was accused of security destabilization. She says they have been arrested by the Head of the National Intelligence Services in Ngozi Province.

Nkunzimana exhorts Burundi government to let people do their political activities freely. “The country will only progress if different political opinions are taken into account”, she says.

Local FNL leaders say they would be accused of insulting government authorities. However, Nkunzimana believes that they would have been victims of their political affiliation. The three men arrested are followers of the First Deputy President of the National Assembly, Agathon Rwasa. Aimé Magera, FNL spokesperson, says the three FNL members have been brutally tortured. “They are hardly recognizable. Christian Citegetse has been seriously beaten on his face while the leg of Jérémie Ndoriyobija was broken”, he says. He calls on the human rights groups to follow those cases closely. “About 70 followers of FNL party have been arrested only in the month of June”, he says.

Pierre Nkurikiye, spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Security, says the three men have been arrested when they were causing troubles in a bar. “They were drunk. Suddenly, they started saying things that would destabilize security”, he says. Nkurikiye says it is the population that alerted the police to arrest them. He also says he is not aware of the torture that they would have endured.