Burundi’s Supreme Court on Friday sentenced ousted prime minister Alain-Guillaume Bunyoni to life in prison on charges including attempting to overthrow the government and threatening the life of the president.
Bunyoni, whose trial opened three months ago, was prime minister from mid-2020 until September 2022 when he was fired, days after President Evariste Ndayishimiye had warned of a “coup” plot against him.
He was “sentenced to life imprisonment (on charges)… including plotting against the head of state to overthrow the constitutional regime”
The army general was also accused of using witchcraft to threaten the life of the head of state, undermining national security, destabilising the economy and illegal enrichment, among other charges.
He had pleaded not guilty to all charges and said he should be acquitted because of a lack of evidence
The court, which met in the political capital Gitega, also ordered the authorities to confiscate four houses and buildings as well as a land parcel and 14 vehicles belonging to Bunyoni.
Five others in the dock including the two main co-defendants, a police colonel and a senior intelligence agent, received “sentences ranging from three years to 15 years,” the source added.
The seventh defendant, a driver, was acquitted, according to the same source.
Bunyoni was arrested in April in Burundi’s economic capital Bujumbura on the eve of his 51st birthday.
A former police chief and internal security minister, Bunyoni was seen as the head of a cabal of military leaders known as “the generals” who wielded the true political power in Burundi.
A close ally of former president Pierre Nkurunziza, Bunyoni was an influential figure in the ruling CNDD-FDD party since it took power in 2005
