Burundi reporter shot by police officer

BUJUMBURA, Burundi

A journalist in Burundi on Saturday sustained serious gunshot wounds after a police officer he saw extorting money from men carrying fruit to market opened fire on him, witnesses said.

Patrick Niyonkuru, a reporter with independent radio station African Public Radio (RPA), surprised the police officer in the capital before dawn on Saturday.

The officer beat up Niyonkuru and then shot him in the arm, witnesses said. The journalist is now in hospital.

The policeman, identified as Pierre Havyarimana, was indicted for attempted homicide and tried in a fast-track procedure. On Saturday evening he was sentenced to 15 years in prison, an AFP journalist at the courtroom said.

"The policeman was to blame for what happened, and as you've seen he was immediately kicked out of the police and brought before the courts," police spokesman Elie Bizindanvyi told AFP.

The attack comes one day after a journalist with a private TV station was attacked and wounded in his home by assailants armed with guns and machetes who made off with his computer and several recordings.