Urgent Action Update: Human Rights Defender Held in Pre-Trial Detention (Burundi: UA 257.17)

Burundian human rights defender Nestor Nibitanga has spent more than five months in pre-trial detention. He was arrested on 21 November 2017. Amnesty International believes the charges against him of “threatening state security” and “rebellion” are in relation to his human rights work.

1) TAKE ACTION
Write a letter, send an email, call, fax or tweet:

Calling on the authorities to drop all charges and immediately and unconditionally release Nestor Nibitanga;
Calling on them to ensure that he has access to his family and a lawyer of his choice, pending his release;
Urging them to ensure that he is protected from torture or other ill-treatment while in detention;
Urging them to stop the intimidation and harrassment of human rights defenders.

Contact these two officials by 11 June, 2018:

Minister of Justice
Aimée Laurentine Kanyana
Ministry of Justice
BP 1305
Bujumbura, Burundi
Twitter: @AimeeLaurentine
Salutation: Dear Minister

Chargé d’Affaires, Benjamin Manirakiza
Embassy of the Republic of Burundi
2233 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Suite 408 Washington, DC 20007
Phone: 1 202 342 2574 I Fax: 1 202 342 2578
Email: [email protected]
Salutation: Dear Ambassador

2) LET US KNOW YOU TOOK ACTION
Click here to let us know if you took action on this case! This is Urgent Action 257.17
Here’s why it is so important to report your actions: we record the actions taken on each case—letters, emails, calls and tweets—and use that information in our advocacy.

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