Prison authorities in Burundi yesterday transferred Hassan Ruvakuki, a journalist working for Bonesha FM radio, who is also a correspondent for Radio France International (RFI), to another prison facility –Muramvya, in Central Burundi in a move that has sparked off protests from his lawyers and the Union of Burundi Journalists (UBJ).
Ruvakuki, who has been held in police cells in Cankuzo in Eastern Burundi since his arrest on November 28, 2011, was first transferred to Ruyigi Prison along with other co-defenders amid protests and fears over their safety on January 6, 2012.
The journalist’s defense lawyers said the security of the journalist was in jeopardy given that the prison authorities have kept moving him from one prison to another without informing them.
The defense team has accused the presiding judge and the president of the court at Cankuzo, of partiality and have said they will seek the intervention of the Appeal Court at Gitega, to allocate the case to a more impartial court.
According UBJ, Ruyigi Prison authorities said they transferred the journalist to the new prison facility following an order by the Crown Court of Ruyigi. Two of his co-defendants were reportedly transferred to Gitega Prison.
Ruvakuki was arrested on November 28 last year over claims of working closely with rebel groups and has for the last one month been held, along with 22 others arrested over similar claims, in Cankuzo in the Eastern part of the country. .
UBJ President Alexandre Niyungeko termed the transfer “a manoeuvre to drag the case when the journalist is being held in inhuman prison conditions”. He called for a speedy trial or his immediate release.
Eastern Africa Journalists Association Secretary, General Omar Faruk Osman, termed the move to transfer the journalist from one prison to another as “part of attempts to kill the spirit of press freedom and intimidate the journalists’ fraternity in Burundi.”
“EAJA joins its affiliate, UBJ, in its campaign against any attempts to frustrate and demoralize not only the journalist currently detained but by extension, to silence journalists and curtail media freedom in the country,” added Osman.
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