BUJUMBURA, Burundi — Seventeen security officials, including five generals, accused in the attempted coup of Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza appeared Saturday before a prosecutor who charged them with an attempt at destabilizing public institutions, lawyers of some of the suspects said.
The suspects in the coup plot are three army generals and two police generals, said presidential spokesman Gervais Abayeho.
Others are four lower-ranking officers and eight soldiers. Maj. Gen. Godefroid Niyombare, suspected of leading the coup, is still at large.
The coup attempt came amid Burundi’s turmoil over Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term in office. After weeks of street protests against Nkurunziza’s efforts to stay in power, Niyombare announced the coup Wednesday. Nkurunziza was in Tanzania attending an emergency regional summit to discuss Burundi’s crisis when the attempted coup started but soldiers loyal to the president stopped the rebellion.
Lawyers for the suspects say officials tortured them during detention.
“They have been beaten, tied with rope, and they don’t have shoes and shirts,” said Miburo Anatole, an official of the Bar Association of Bujumbura.
Another lawyer, Cyriaque Nibitegeka, said his client, an army official, was forced to confess under gunpoint and had been denied food since the men were arrested.
