Burundi ex-PM on life sentence released from prison on medical grounds

Burundi's former Prime Minister General Alain-Guillaume Bunyoni, serving a life sentence for an attempted coup, was released on medical grounds on Wednesday, a judicial source and relatives told AFP.

Bunyoni was prime minister from mid-2020 until September 2022, when he was fired, days after President Evariste Ndayishimiye had warned of an alleged coup plot against him.

Rights groups have said his diabetes had worsened in prison due to a lack of medical care and he was suffering loss of motor skills and speech.

Bunyoni, a former police chief and internal security minister, had already been hospitalised since October but was formally granted "provisional release for medical reasons," the judicial source said on condition of anonymity.

'Condition extremely worrying'

He was taken to his home in the commercial capital Bujumbura.

"His condition is extremely worrying," a relative told AFP, also speaking on condition of anonymity.