PANAPRESS
Panafrican News Agency
CPJ wants Burundi to end prosecution of journo
New York, US (PANA) - The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has written to Burundi, the only Sub-Saharan African country jailing a journalist on treason charges, to halt ''a flawed prosecution'' of an online journalist imprisoned following his criticism of security forces.
In a public letter issued ahead of a hearing on Wednesday, CPJ called on Burundi’s justice minister to intervene and stop the use of a charge reserved exclusively for wartime offences under Burundi’s penal code.
In the letter, CPJ argues for the release of the journalist, Jean Claude Kavumbagu, jailed in July 2010 and charged with treason for publishing an article criticizing the Burundi’s security forces’ preparedness to prevent a terrorist attack. If convicted of treason, Kavumbagu could face life imprisonment.
''It is imperative that Burundi’s justice minister urge the state prosecutor to drop the charge against Kavumbagu, who edits the news website NetPress, and release him immediately. Not only is the charge flawed, but so is the government’s basis for keeping Kavumbagu in pre-trial detention - preventive detention only applies if the defendant has a history of violating bail conditions,'' CPJ said in a statement obtained by PANA here.
It said a CPJ delegation visited Kavumbagu at Bujumbura’s Mpimba prison in December 2010 and pressed for his release in meetings with Burundi’s First Vice President and Information Minister, apparently to no avail.
-0- PANA SEG 13April2011
In a public letter issued ahead of a hearing on Wednesday, CPJ called on Burundi’s justice minister to intervene and stop the use of a charge reserved exclusively for wartime offences under Burundi’s penal code.
In the letter, CPJ argues for the release of the journalist, Jean Claude Kavumbagu, jailed in July 2010 and charged with treason for publishing an article criticizing the Burundi’s security forces’ preparedness to prevent a terrorist attack. If convicted of treason, Kavumbagu could face life imprisonment.
''It is imperative that Burundi’s justice minister urge the state prosecutor to drop the charge against Kavumbagu, who edits the news website NetPress, and release him immediately. Not only is the charge flawed, but so is the government’s basis for keeping Kavumbagu in pre-trial detention - preventive detention only applies if the defendant has a history of violating bail conditions,'' CPJ said in a statement obtained by PANA here.
It said a CPJ delegation visited Kavumbagu at Bujumbura’s Mpimba prison in December 2010 and pressed for his release in meetings with Burundi’s First Vice President and Information Minister, apparently to no avail.
-0- PANA SEG 13April2011
