May 5
BURUNDI:
Death sentence for killers of WHO official
The Criminal Chamber of the Bujumbura Court of Appeal sentenced 4 senior
army and police officers to death on Tuesday for the planning and
execution of the World Health Organisation representative to Burundi,
Kassy Manlan.
The convicts are Emile Manisha, a former police superintendent; Col Gerard
Ntunzwenayo, the deputy director general of the Burundi Intelligence
Service; Japhet Ndayegamiye, head of the Intelligence Service in Bujumbura
City; and Capt Aloys Bizimana, who headed the army's Kiyange Brigade in
Bujumbura Rural. They said they would appeal the sentence to Burundi's
Supreme Court.
Manlan, an Ivorian, was killed on 19 November 2001. His body was found the
following day on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. The motive for the killing
has not been established.
The court also sentenced 3 others to life imprisonment and 2 to 20 years.
2 private security guards posted at WHO's offices in Burumbura at the time
of Kassy's death were sentenced to 10 years and 2 other guards at Kassy's
home got 2 years.
All 4 of the men sentenced to death had been on the initial commission of
inquiry set up to investigate Manlan's killing. The commission pinned
responsibility on Kassy's secretary, Gertrude Nyamoya, and his assistant,
Lamine Diara. The commission said the private security guards had carried
out the killing.
Revelations during court hearings in May 2003 by one of the security
guards accused of the murder led to the arrest of the 4 members of the
commission in October 2003 and the subsequent release from detention of
Nyamoya and Diara.
Manisha was found to have planned the murder, but according to Nyamoya's
lawyer, Bernard Mainguin, the murder has not been fully solved.
"We have sentenced the killers and their accomplices but an important
piece is still missing in this case - the mastermind," Mainguin told Radio
Burundi on Wednesday.
He said the Burundi judicial system must "search for the truth without
fear even if the name of former president has been cited".
In February, Mainguin had accused the former head of state Pierre Buyoya
of having ordered the assassination.
(source: Reuters)
