2 match officials in jail for allowing Burundi’s president get roughed up in football game
Two Burundi football officials have apparently bitten more than they can chew by allowing the country’s president get “roughed up” in a football match.
They have been imprisoned for committing the very grave offence.
The officials, Cyriaque Nkezabahizi and his assistant, Michel Mutama, had on February 3, officiated a novelty match involving President Pierre Nkurunziza.
President Nkurunziza likes to play. He travels with his team, Haleluya FC, comprising members of his church choir, to many locally organised football matches.
On this particular day, President Nkurunziza’s team played against a side from the northern town of Kiremba.
The opposition comprised Congolese refugees who had no idea they were playing against Burundi’s president.
The Kiremba team “attacked each time he had the ball and made him fall several times”, AFP quotes a witness.
Another judicial source is quoted as saying the officials of the match had been arrested on charges of “conspiracy against the president”. They were sentenced Thursday.
President Nkurunziza’s administration has been embroiled in human rights abuse and unjust killing allegations since his reelection for a third term.
