Burundi court releases six police officers convicted of murdering WHO official

Friday, June 13, 2008

Burundi court releases six police officers convicted of murdering WHO official
Devin Montgomery at 2:27 PM ET

[JURIST] A Burundi [JURIST news archive] court Thursday released six former police officers convicted of

killing a World Health Organization (WHO) [official website] official because two key witnesses against the
accused escaped from custody. In May of 2005, four of the men were sentenced [BBC report] to death and

two were sentenced to twenty years in jail for their role in the 2001 murder of WHO representative Kassi

Manlan [WHO statement]. The court that convicted the men never formally alleged a motive for the killing, but

defense lawyers say it was to prevent Manlan from investigating high-level politicians for defrauding a WHO malaria

program. Reuters has more.

Burundi has severe corruption problems, and the research group Global Integrity [website] has given the country an

integrity score [Global Integrity materials] of "very weak", amounting to 54 on a 100 point scale. In February of this

year, opposition leaders in the country sought UN protection [JURIST report] after allegedly receiving death threats

from ruling party officials. In November 2006 President Pierre Nkurunziza [BBC profile] made limited admissions to

Amnesty International [advocacy website] accusationsreport] that the military and police used brutality and even

torture to deal with suspected rebels. In October 2006 Human Right Watch [advocacy website] accused Burundi's

National Intelligence Service of committing widespread extra-judicial killings [HRW report; JURIST report]. [press release; JURIST

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