The Supreme Court in Burundi Thursday acquitted six persons suspected to have assassinated the former resident representative of the WHO, Ivorian Kassi Manlan. The assassination took place 19-20 November 2001. The suspects were former senior officers of the police and public security. At the trial, the prosecution had requested for the death sentence for the accused but when judgement was given in their favour, defence lawyers stated that they would ask for damages for moral and material losses suffered by their clients. Manlan was murdered in his house in the north of Bujumbura and his body was found on the west bank of Lake Tangayika. The local media have long speculated on the cause of his death, linking it to a case of embezzlement of WHO funds meant for the fight against malaria which he was about to uncover.
