Burundi has pardoned a journalist sentenced to 10 years in prison for allegedly “undermining the integrity of the national territory”, the presidency announced late Thursday.
Floriane Irangabiye was arrested in August 2022 while visiting her family in the East African nation and sentenced in January 2023, provoking international concerns over press freedoms.
In a notice posted on X, President Evariste Ndayishimiye said — in a decision dated August 14 — that he “grants the presidential pardon measure in favour of Mrs. Floriane Irangabiye.”
It went on to state that she “benefits from a total remission of sentences.”
The human rights group ACAT Burundi hailed the decision, but in a post on X urged Ndayishimiye “to continue on this path by releasing all other people unjustly imprisoned.”
“Justice and human rights must be respected for all,” it added.
