Of course.
We met with these four lawyers when they came to Geneva. They were there during the hearing of the Burundian authorities because they had been involved in developing the report or the counter report of a collective of non-government organizations with which they were working.
You know how the Committee against Torture operates. Information is sent directly to it by the United Nations office in the field and by various interested UN bodies in the region. Then, through local or international NGOs, civil society escalates reports to the Committee against Torture showing violations that we might not have been aware of. We verify the information and meet with the NGOs before meeting with the state involved.
When we met with these NGOs, which formed a coalition under the World Organization Against Torture, we heard the arguments of the lawyers. They were then present when the Burundi delegation was received by the Committee against Torture. The day the committee noted the delegation's absence, the four lawyers were subject to removal from the Bar of Bujumbura.
The Minister of Justice argued that the four lawyers allegedly attacked state security. In other words, the only argument was that these lawyers had participated in various demonstrations, thereby threatening internal security and, as a result, they were subject to trial and criminal prosecution. Therefore, she demanded that these four lawyers be removed from the Bar of Bujumbura.
The four lawyers came to us with this on August 5, 2016. As set out in the Convention Against Torture, the victims of reprisals can refer their matter to the Committee against Torture, which then informs the state authorities in order to obtain clarifications about the facts that have been brought to its attention by these victims of reprisals. Therefore, we took action immediately and informed the mission of Burundi in Geneva. We received this very terse response:
The Government of Burundi is also appalled by the attitude of the Committee, which adamantly defends people who, under Burundian criminal law, are defendants in regular criminal procedures by citing the presumption of innocence even before the Committee has first verified their false and malicious allegations of reprisals.
These four lawyers aren't in Burundi; they had to flee Bujumbura. Some of them are in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, others are in Rwanda and one of them is currently in Brussels, if I'm not mistaken.
Following consultation with these four lawyers, many bar associations became worried, including those in Geneva, Paris, London and Brussels. In short, we received many indications of disapproval toward the Burundian authorities from lawyer colleagues of these four victims of reprisals.