AFRICA : BURUNDI : APPREHENSION OF FATE OF JOURNALIST

CISA NEWS REPORT -The journalists’ fraternity in the Eastern Africa Region has expressed apprehension over the fate of Burundi journalist Hassan Ruvakuki ahead of a court verdict due on May 20, 2012 following a prolonged trial.
Eastern Africa Journalists Association (EAJA) which brings together journalists unions and associations from 10 countries in the region has called for the immediate release of the journalist saying his arrest and trial was “politically motivated and an affront to press freedom”.
“We have followed the case closely and are convinced that the journalist’s arrest and trial is political. We urge the Burundi authorities to head our appeal and that of the entire international community to terminate the case against the journalist and release him immediately,” Said EAJA Secretary General Omar Faruk Osman.
The Provincial High Court in Cankuzo Province more than 100 kilometers from the capital, Bujumbura, which has been presiding over the journalist’s trial, is due to deliver its verdict on May 20, amid fear that it may sentence the journalist to a life in prison.
The journalist was arrested in November 2011 shortly after a visit to neighboring Tanzania where he interviewed a leader of a rebel group. The Burundian government accused him of complicity with “terrorists” and denies the existence of any rebels.
The journalist, who was working with a local radio station, Bonesha FM and was also a correspondent for Radio France International (RFI), was presented in court on May 10, 2012 for the final hearing during which the prosecution made a spirited argument for a life sentence for the scribe and others facing similar charges.
The death penalty has been abolished in Burundi which leaves the life sentence as the harshest punishment that can be meted out by the Burundian courts.
The Union of Burundi Journalist (UBJ), an affiliate of EAJA, today reported that the trial of the journalist and the pending court verdict had led to “a cloud of fear and uncertainty within the local journalists’ fraternity.”
UBJ President Alexandre Niyungeko said the case against the journalist amounted to “persecution of journalists and an attempt to intimidate the media into silence.”
This latest case of arrest and prosecution of a journalist doing his work casts a negative shadow on Burundi as a consistent violator of press freedom given that this happened less than a year after it arrested and detained another journalist Jean Claude Kavumbagu for eight months from 2010 to mid 2011, when he was released after an international campaign.
SOURCE: CISA NEWS AFRICA

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