Sandra Muhoza is a Burundian journalist  arbitrarily detained in Bujumbura’s Mpimba central prison for exercising her profession with integrity. She is a symbol of the brutal repression of the press in Burundi. 

On April 13, 2024, Sandra Muhoza was arrested by agents of the Service National de Renseignement (SNR) after being lured into an ambush on the pretext of an interview with a businessman in Ngozi. She was transferred to SNR headquarters the following day. She has been held in Mpimba central prison since April 19, 2024. 

Her trial took place on November 12, 2024 before the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Mukaza in Bujumbura. The charges related to comments exchanged in a private WhatsApp group for Burundian journalists, in which she spoke of the loss of her parents during the violence that followed the assassination of President Melchior Ndadaye in 1993, while relaying information about an alleged distribution of machetes by the government. Despite the lack of solid evidence, the public prosecutor requested twelve years’ imprisonment, including ten years for “attacking the integrity of national territory” and two years for “racial aversion”, as well as a fine of one million Burundian francs (around 320 euros). On December 16, 2024, the court sentenced Sandra Muhoza to eighteen months’ imprisonment for “attacking the integrity of national territory” and three months for “racial aversion”, for a total sentence of twenty-one months’ imprisonment.