About twenty organizations with a Burundian majority issued a statement on Friday, February 28, 2025, to demand the unconditional release of journalist Sandra Muhoza. detained for nearly a year, accused among other things, of ethnic aversion and undermining the internal security of the State, crimes still attributed to critical voices according to these human rights organizations.

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Signatories of the joint statement deplore conditions in which Sandra Muhoza was arrested and kept in detention.

« These conditions clearly demonstrate the extent to which the judiciary has become a tool for persecuting all voices that disagree with the regime in place, » they emphasize before adding : « this is a real threat to freedom of the press and freedom of expression in Burundi. »

Arrested on April 13, 2024, our colleague Muhoza is held at Bujumbura Central Prison in the commercial city, known as Mpimba. These organizations are talking about kidnapping.

« She was kidnapped by a businessman who called her telling her that he wanted to give her a scoop and that he wanted her to cover the news herself. Arriving at the place agreed with her tormentor, Sandra Muhoza was handed over to agents of the National Intelligence Service (SNR) in Ngozi (north) and was immediately taken to an unknown location. The next day, she was transported to the SNR headquarters in Bujumbura, » these activists recall.

These human rights defenders criticize « the crimes attributed to the journalist ».

« The SNR invented a grotesque accusation against Sandra Muhoza, namely : the attack on the integrity of the national territory » and « racial aversion for having made a comment in a WhatsApp group of journalists from various local media … », they analyze.

The initiator of the said statement also drank from this cup. He is Germain Rukuki, former member of the Association of Catholic Jurists of Burundi, now founder of the organization, « Together for the Support of Human Rights Defenders in Danger (ESDDH) ».

He founded this organization after leaving Ngozi prison in northern Burundi where he was serving a 32-year prison sentence, later reduced to one year « for undermining the State security and association with the putschists of the failed coup d’état of spring 2015 ».

He recalls that « the offence of attacking the integrity of the national territory is a pretext commonly used to repress opponents, journalists and human rights defenders since it is unthinkable that a simple citizen who only expresses himself in discussions with colleagues could commit such a serious offence ».

He and his fellow committed activists demand the unconditional release of the only female journalist imprisoned in Africa.

« The arrest and detention of Journalist Sandra Muhoza were characterized by inhuman and degrading treatment as well as numerous judicial irregularities. In particular, she was arrested without a warrant and arbitrarily detained in violation of provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure in force in Burundi. In addition, she was deprived of the assistance of her lawyer during her police custody and detained far from her place of residence and prosecuted by a territorially incompetent authority », say in particular leading jurists and lawyers of these organizations.

And they recall that this « abusive deprivation of liberty » against Sandra Muhoza is a flagrant violation of international instruments regularly ratified by Burundi, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

National and international human rights organizations are recommended to continue their joint action to fight for human rights and to advocate for the immediate and unconditional release of journalist Muhoza « unjustly incarcerated » since April 13, 2024.

Apart from « Together for the Support of Human Rights Defenders in Danger (ESDDH) », the initiator of the said joint declaration, the other signatories include : Action of Christians for the Abolition of Torture – Burundi, Belgium, Switzerland, France sections, the Burundian Association for the Protection of Human Rights and Detained Persons (APRODH), and the Burundian Coalition of Human Rights Defenders (CBDDH).

There is also the Burundian Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights Living in Refugee Camps (CDH/VICAR), the Burundian Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CB-CPI), the Civil Society Coalition for Electoral Monitoring (COSOME), the Coalition of Lawyers for the Defense of Victims of Crimes under International Law Committed in Burundi (CAVIB), the CNCD 11 11 11, DefendDefenders, Tournons la Page-Burundi, the Iteka League, Light for All and many others.

On December 16, 2024, the Mukaza First Instance Court in the commercial city of Bujumbura sentenced Sandra Muhoza to 21 months in prison, « an unfair political decision, » according to Reporters Without Borders, which called on the Burundian justice system to reverse its measure.