Burundi : the implementation of the presidential pardon decried by prisoners and associations

Launched on November 14, the operation to relieve prison congestion continues in some provinces or has been closed – sometimes prematurely. Prisoners and local associations denounce an « activity tainted by many irregularities » and ask President Ndayishimiye’s office to get involved itself to correct them.
INFO SOS Médias Burundi
Of the 5,442 prisoners who should benefit from the presidential pardon, the central prison of Bujumbura called Mpimba was supposed to release 2,800, announced the commission in charge of implementing the presidential pardon.
The first beneficiaries were informed on November 16, learned SOS Médias Burundi. But prisoners say they do not understand how people who were on the list of prisoners to be released remain in detention.
« Members of the commission came here, they read the names of the inmates to be released. It was on the 16th. But until now, the majority of them remain in detention, » detainees deplore.
Premature closure
In Mpimba, messengers of President Ndayishimiye had announced that the operation should end on November 27. But the last prisoners amnestied were released on November 23.
« We were very surprised to learn that the operation was ending on Saturday while it was supposed to last until the 27th. We wonder who controls who between the president and the team he mandated to release the prisoners he pardoned, » laments a prisoner who was unable to leave prison even though he was on the list of beneficiaries.
1,200 people were released from the prison in the commercial capital. However, the commission had stated that there were an estimated 2,800 in this remand center.
Cry of the associations
The Association for the fight against unemployment and torture, ALUCHOTO, closely followed the operation to relieve prison congestion. It denounces an activity marked by many irregularities.
« [….] We have noted several irregularities : there are people who have not been released even though they were on the lists of beneficiaries of this measure, some detainees have been informed that their files could not be found, others have been forced to give the identity of local authorities in their village of origin. These are irregularities that constitute an obstacle to the measure of the head of state », Vianney Ndayisaba, the representative of this local organization, told SOS Médias Burundi.
He welcomes a salutary measure but regrets that it could not take into account « political prisoners ».
In several prisons, ALUCHOTO has noted a strange fact : two out of three detainees who share the same file or one prisoner out of three who were convicted of the same offenses, have been released, the rest of the group remaining in prison.
Vianney Ndayisaba accuses members of the commission of having deceived the president for their own interests. He finds it incomprehensible that prisoners who have served their sentence do not benefit from the presidential pardon while people prosecuted for economic crimes do. « Corrections are needed ».
According to our sources, prison officials are like « spectators » in this process. Members of the commission go to the respective prisons, equipped with lists of prisoners to be released, call the concerned prisoners one by one, issue release tickets without the prison directors being involved. « They even leave with the stubs of the release tickets ».
ALUCHOTO and prisoners are calling on the National Commission for Human Rights, CNIDH, and President Ndayishimiye’s office to get involved so that the irregularities are corrected. A spokesperson for President Ndayishimiye was not available to respond to these complaints. But SOS Médias Burundi has learned that the ministry in charge of human rights plans to visit all prisons to « analyze the cases of disgruntled prisoners. »
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A police officer escorts prisoners to Muramvya prison, including pupils prosecuted for scribbling the photo of the late President Pierre Nkurunziza in school textbooks, June 2016 (SOS Médias Burundi)