Burundi’s ex-President Pierre Buyoya on Wednesday rejected a life sentence he received in absentia by a top court over the 1993 assassination of his successor, reported Al Jazeera. He dismissed the case, calling it as a sham.
“We reject these judgments, which are in no way binding on us,” Buyoya said on Wednesday in a statement.
On Tuesday, Burundi’s top court sentenced Buyoya to life imprisonment over his role in the death of President Melchior Ndadaye in 1993.
Buyoya first came to power in Burundi in a coup in 1987 but stepped down after losing an election to Ndadaye, who became the East African country’s first democratically elected president in 1993. But he was killed just four months into the job by hardline ethnic Tutsi soldiers. His murder plunged the nation into years of civil war between the majority Hutu group and minority Tutsis. The civil war that lasted until 2016 resulted in the deaths of over 300,000 people.
After a military coup, Buyoya ruled the nation between 1996 and 2003. He is currently positioned as the African union’s representative in Mali and Sahel.
The Burundi court also sentenced 18 others in relation to the case, three of whom were given 20 years in prison. Many of those convicted, including Buyoya, did not make an appearance in the court since they were abroad. Those sentenced have also been ordered to pay a collective fine of 103 billion Burundian francs.
The court, however, did not give details on the evidence against Buyoya, or his alleged role in the killing.
“This case is a purely political trial,” the ex-president said, suggesting Burundi’s current government was exploiting the case for electoral ends.
He said that defense lawyers had not been allowed to access case files and added that the trial violated the 2000 Arusha peace accord that helped end Burundi’s civil war.
