Uprona official acquitted

Burundi Supreme court on Friday acquitted the leader of the anti-negotiations faction of the Uprona party, Charles Mukasi. “The offence with which Mukasi is charged has not been established,” Burundi news agency Net Press quoted the court as saying. Mukasi had been charged with “having made malicious and public statements in Bujumbura on 5 and 6 November, 1997, which allegedly “discredited the government and struck a blow to the honour and esteem of its members or exposed them to public contempt”. “I have never seen a government as corrupt as ours, the liberalisation of the sale of fuel, the contracts in this area, all this was done through bribes and the government is very much implicated. The members of government are themselves corrupt,” he had said.