Burundian authorities are using procedural loopholes to stall Sandra Muhoza’s appeal, heightening RSF’s concerns of a calculated effort to prolong her unjust detention.
This statement was originally published on rsf.org on 30 April 2025.
Burundian journalist Sandra Muhoza’s appeal was due to be heard on 26 April, but the appeals court has decided to reopen the original proceedings in order to rule on the first judge’s lack of jurisdiction. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) fears the move is way of slowing down the case yet again – over a year into the journalist’s imprisonment – and calls for her immediate release.
Sandra Muhoza‘s defence was expecting to hear the verdict in the Burundian journalist’s appeal yet the Bujumbura Court of Appeal ordered that the original proceedings be reopened instead. The judges say they seek to rule on the territorial jurisdiction of the first judge, who is located in the city of Bujumbura, where Sandra Muhoza is being held, and not in the northern city of Ngozi, where the journalist lives and where the alleged offence was committed.
While examining this question could constitute a step towards justice – if the first judge is ruled incompetent, it would mean the annulment of all judicial acts in the case and, consequently, the arrest warrant would be lifted – but there is a real danger that this decision will instead be used to postpone the end of the journalist’s trial once again. Prosper Niyoyankana, one of Sandra Muhoza’s lawyers, told RSF he sees this as a way of slowing down the case. “This issue was raised before the first judge, who paid no attention to it. Nor did the appeal judge raise it during the debates,” he explains.
Moreover, the proceedings’ reopening comes after the appeal trial was postponed three times for dubious – even spurious – reasons, such as the “unavailability of the vehicle” that was supposed to take the journalist from prison to court due to a lack of fuel. The appeal hearing was finally held on 26 March. At that time, the prosecution brought new charges without solid evidence, alleging the journalist had contacts with an activist and exiled media outlets, according to her lawyers.
“While the judicial authorities have ordered Sandra Muhoza’s first trial to be reopened, the arbitrary detention of the journalist continues – more than a year after her imprisonment. The reason for reopening the proceedings is surprising, as the territorial jurisdiction of judges has never been seriously addressed before. The chronic judicial delays in this case indicate there may be a deliberate strategy to give reason to fear a strategy aimed at slowing down a little more the handling of stalling the case of a journalist who should never have been arrested for her work. Now, the judges have one last opportunity to show that this is a judicial case, not a political one.”
Sadibou Marong, Director, RSF Sub-Saharan Africa
Detained since 18 April 2024, Sandra Muhoza was sentenced in December 2024 to 21 months in prison – 18 months for “undermining the integrity of the national territory” and three for “racial aversion” – for having relayed, in a WhatsApp group, information about an alleged distribution of arms by the government in power.
In March 2025, RSF referred the matter to the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information from the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR).
