On 29 September, Tony Germain Nkina was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for reasons related to his involvement in the defence of human rights in Burundi. We denounce this unjust sentence and call for his immediate release.

 

On 13 October 2020, Mr Tony Germain Nkina was arrested during a business trip to the town of Kabarore in Burundi. After a rebel attack in the same commune at the end of September, the lawyer was accused of complicity with an armed group and of undermining the internal security of the state. The client he was going to see that day, Mr Apollinaire Hitimana, was also arrested. After eight months of pre-trial detention, the High Court of Kayanza convicted the lawyer and his client for collaboration with armed groups.

 

On 29 September 2021, the Ngozi Court of Appeal upheld the lawyer's sentence of five years in prison, while his client was sentenced to two years in prison for complicity. As can be seen from the interrogation and the prosecution's accusation, the conviction of Me Tony Germain Nkina is in fact due to his former relationship with one of the main human rights organisations in Burundi, the Association for the Protection of Human Rights and Detained Persons (APRODH), of which he was the representative in Kayanza until 2015. That same year, its leader was the victim of an assassination attempt and the organisation was suspended by the government, in the context of a generalized repression against civil society.

 

These convictions are unjust and constitute a serious violation of national and international human rights instruments in general, and of the principles relating to the exercise and role of the legal profession in particular.

 

We therefore call on Ms Domine Banyankimbona, the new Minister of Justice and former Supreme Court magistrate, to instruct the Attorney General of the Republic

 

- to immediately and unconditionally release Mr Tony Germain Nkina and his client Apollinaire Hitimana

 

- to put an end to these unjustified proceedings

 

- to respect the independence of lawyers and allow them to exercise their profession in complete serenity.