Several weeks after the case was deliberated, the Gitega Court of Appeal decides to acquit 21 people and convict 5. The 5 people were found guilty of inciting debauchery. They are sentenced to one year in prison as well as a fine of two hundred thousand Burundian francs each. However, they have just spent around 11 months in prison. Which means that they will serve their sentence in less than a month, that is to say before the end of February 2024.
It should be noted that, for the first time since the start of the case, Burundian justice erases the accusations of homosexuality for all 26 people, most of whom were arrested on February 22, 2023 at the office of the Muco association located in the political capital of Burundi, Gitega.
It should also be noted that among the 26 people cited in the case is Mévain Shurweryimana, who died in detention last August even though the courts had already acquitted him. So far, only around ten acquitted people are free, the rest still languishing in Gitega central prison.
It is also important to remember that, since the first arrests in February 2023, around ten members of the LGBT community have fled Burundi.
