{{A court in Burundi has sentenced 21 opposition supporters to life in prison for participating in an illegal demonstration that turned violent.}}<\/p>\n
Another 26 Movement for Solidarity and Democracy (MSD) supporters were given shorter jail terms.<\/p>\n
They denied participating in a march and say they were out jogging when a police crackdown began.<\/p>\n
Analysts sa the government’s proposals have been partly to blame for the recent rise in political tensions in the East African nation.<\/p>\n
In Burundi, permission must be sought from the authorities to hold a political march or public gathering.<\/p>\n
Police say that on Saturday 8 March, they had intelligence that sporting activities were going to be used as a front to organise illegal demonstrations.<\/p>\n
Officers were deployed in the city to prevent this happening.<\/p>\n
But the situation deteriorated into clashes and some of the joggers tried to seek refuge in the MSD headquarters, taking two policemen hostage.<\/p>\n
Several people were injured in the fracas and afterwards about 70 MSD supporters were arrested, with 48 facing life sentences for insurrection.<\/p>\n
The authorities have since restricted jogging clubs to certain areas.<\/p>\n
All sports must now take place in nine parks in Bujumbura and other designated football pitches, it was announced earlier this week.<\/p>\n
Jogging is a national pastime, with hundreds of people out running or taking a walk on weekend mornings.<\/p>\n
MSD leader Alexis Sinduhije was also charged over the clashes, but has not been caught.<\/p>\n
Those found guilty on Friday are to appeal against their sentences.<\/p>\n
The court in Bujumbura also acquitted 22 of defendants.<\/p>\n
Presidential elections in Burundi are due next year – they will be the third since the official end to the conflict.<\/p>\n
Under a series of peace deals, up to 40% of posts in various state institutions, including parliament, are reserved for members of the minority Tutsi community.<\/p>\n
NMG<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{{A court in Burundi has sentenced 21 opposition supporters to life in prison for participating in an illegal demonstration that turned violent.}} Another 26 Movement for Solidarity and Democracy (MSD) supporters were given shorter jail terms. They denied participating in a march and say they were out jogging when a police crackdown began. Analysts sa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2000051116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[99],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-13321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-justice","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000051116,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13321.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13321.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13321.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13321.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13321.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13321.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000051116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13321"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=13321"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=13321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}