AFP, NAIROBI: Former Burundi defence minister Cyrille Ndayirukiye and four other defendants have pleaded guilty to involvement in a failed coup last May during a trial of 28 police and military figures, judicial sources said Tuesday.
Ndayirukiye, number two among the coup plotters, and two other army generals and two police commissioners cited the violent repression of anti-government protests to justify their attempted takeover of power.
“I could not remain with my arms crossed while the police were killing the population, while President Pierre Nkurunziza was playing football and while the troops... appeared indifferent,” army general Ndayirukiye said during his first statement from the witness box on Monday, the sources said.
They face possible life imprisonment. Burundi was plunged into crisis last April when Nkurunziza announced a controversial bid for a third term, triggering deadly street protests followed by an attempted coup, which laid bare political splits within the military. Coup leader General Godefroid Niyombare is currently on the run.