The second instance of the supreme court has upheld the life sentence handed down to former Burundian prime minister Alain Guillaume Bunyoni.
Supreme Court President Emmanuel Gateretse served notice of the decision on him Thursday the 27th of June 2024 at Gitega Central Prison, where Alain Guillaume Bunyoni has been held since July 2023.
The sentence upheld by the appeal judge of Burundi’s highest court was communicated to the former Hutu rebel in a public hearing on Thursday. In addition to life imprisonment, Alain Guillaume Bunyoni will also have to pay a fine of 22,713,000,000 Burundian francs.
“All Bunyoni’s assets that have not been declared by June 3, 2021 will immediately be confiscated for public use”, the second-degree judge ruled.
This date corresponds to the day on which Alain Guillaume Bunyoni declared his assets, a practice that President Évariste Ndayishimiye has so far downplayed.
Three of Bunyoni’s co-defendants – former riot police commander Colonel Désiré Uwamahoro, former SNR (Service national des renseignements) executive Samuel Destiné Bapfumukeko and former Bunyoni engineer Côme Niyonsaba – also had their 15-year prison sentences renewed by the second judge.
