Former Burundi prime minister sentenced to life imprisonment for coup plot

The highest court of the East African nation convicted the former prime minister and five others for undermining the state's internal security and engaging in a plot to alter the national constitution of Burundi in a verdict on December 8, local media Iwacu reported.

The 51-year-old Bunyoni faced the charges with six other defendants.

Along with seizing his assets, the court sentenced three of the defendants each to fifteen years in prison, three-year sentences each for two other defendants, and acquitted the last defendant of all charges, Iwacu reported.

Bunyoni was sworn in as prime minister in June 2020 by the President of Burundi Évariste Ndayishimiye. He was dismissed in September 2022 after the president hinted at a coup plot against him.

The prime minister position of the East African nation was reestablished in 2020 with Bunyoni's appointment after being abolished in 1998.