According to media, Burundi released journalist Floriane Irangabiye on Friday after he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for allegedly “undermining the integrity of the national territory”.
Irangabiye, 36, was arrested in August 2022 while visiting her family in the East African country and jailed in January 2023, drawing international condemnation.
“I am very happy because I have just reunited with my family,” Irangabiye told reporters outside the Muyinga prison after she was released.
President Evariste Ndayishimiye published a decree on the X social media on Thursday granting a “presidential pardon measure in favour of Mrs Floriane Irangabiye”.
It went on to state that she benefited from “a total remission of sentences”.
The human rights group ACAT Burundi hailed the decision, saying that Irangabiye’s imprisonment was “illegal and unjustified”. In a post on X it urged Ndayishimiye “to continue on this path by releasing all other people unjustly imprisoned”.
Global media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders said it was “relieved” with the release, but adding that Irangabiye “should never have been arrested or spent so much time behind bars”.
“We reiterate our call on the Burundian authorities to protect press freedom in the country and ensure that Burundian journalists can freely carry out their work without fear of reprisals,” it said.
Irangabiye’s case provoked international condemnation, with the United Nations voicing concern last year over her imprisonment “simply for doing her job”.
Her January trial focused on her work at Radio Igicaniro, including her appearance on a show with two Burundian leadership critics, according to court records and her counsel.
She had lived in neighboring Rwanda for a decade before her arrest, according to Amnesty International, which warned last year that the journalist’s “health has deteriorated while in detention”.
According to RSF, Burundi ranks 108th among 180 nations in terms of press freedom.
Sandra Muhoza, a reporter for the online publication La Nova Burundi, was imprisoned earlier this year and eventually charged with “endangering internal security”.
Ndayishimiye, who took control in 2020, has been commended for gradually eliminating Burundi’s isolationism during former President Pierre Nkurunziza’s turbulent and murderous administration.
However, he has not improved the country’s human rights record, and the African Great Lakes nation of 12 million people remains among the poorest in the world.