Two
Burundi officials have been imprisoned after President Pierre
Nkurunziza, who was playing during a match with his personal team, was
allegedly "roughed up" in the match they organised, legal sources and
witnesses said Friday.
A
legal source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the
administrator of the northern town of Kiremba as well as his deputy, who
is in charge of sport, had been charged with "conspiracy against the
president" on Thursday.
It all
started when the Kiremba team played a match earlier this month against
Nkurunziza's Allelua FC team, which includes the president.
Several
town residents told AFP that the administrator Cyriaque Nkezabahizi and
his deputy Michel Mutama had recruited players among Congolese refugees
living in a camp in the town.
"These
Congolese obviously didn't know President Nkurunziza because they
roughed him up during the match, attacking each time he had the ball and
making him fall several times while the Burundian players were careful
not to get too close to him," one witness said.
Nkurunziza,
who is a "born-again" evangelical, spends at least half of every week
travelling with his team Allelua FC and his choir "Komeza gusenga" which
means "pray non-stop" in the local kirundi language.
He also participates in community development projects, in which he can be seen lugging around rocks or mixing cement.
The
54-year-old president, a former sport professor at the University of
Burundi, continues to practice swimming and cycling and plays up to
three football matches a week.
He built a 9 000-seat stadium in his home town and dozens others across the country.
Critics say he is allowed to score several "bogus" goals during each match, with no player daring to seriously take him on.
In
power since 2005, Nkurunziza is leading a push for a referendum in May
on changes to the constitution that would allow him to run in elections
in 2020.
AFP
0 comments:
Post a Comment