(AGI) Rome, Feb 5 - As far as the authorities and internationalcommunity were concerned the case of the murder of threeItalian nuns in Burundi last September was closed. There is aculprit in prison and a motive, or rather two: "Hatred of whitepeople" and an old land dispute. However, this simple thesishas convinced few people and definitely not Bob Rugurika, thedirector of Radio Publique Africaine (RPA), Burundi's mostpopular radio station. According to Avantionline, on Jan.20Rugurika was suddenly called in and then arrested by securityforces in Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi, after havingreleased a recording of a man claiming to be one of theperpetrators of the triple murder. The anonymous man accusesGeneral Adolphe Nshimirimana, former director of Burundi'ssecurity services and a personal friend of President PierreNkurunziza, of complicity in the murders along with othersenior officials from the state intelligence and securityservices. The director of Radio Publique Africaine refused toreveal the identity of the source to judges, the MISNA newsagency reported. According to the testimony broadcast by RPA,Mr Nshimirimana instigated killings, as the three nuns wereabout to publicly denounce the general for smuggling. Thegeneral owns a hospital in the same district as the mission,and was was importing drugs, saying they were for the parishchurch and thus avoiding customs duties. Among the medicines,transported in vehicles owned by the church, Mr Nshimirimanaalso hid minerals smuggled illegally from the neighbouringDemocratic Republic of Congo, passing them off as humanitarianaid. The journalist, who has been campaigning against theofficial police version since the beginning of the affair,faces four charges: "Complicity" in the murders, "breach ofpublic solidarity", "disclosing confidential information" and"covering up a crime". The authorities have thus recognisedthat there may be an offender other than the man convicted. Itwas on Sept. 7 that Lucia Pulici, 73 and Olga Raschietti, 80,two Italian Xaverian missionaries, were brutally murdered inthe parish mission on the northern outskirts of Bujumbura. Thegrisly discovery was made around 4pm by sister BernadetteBoggian, who soon suffered the same fate. A few hours later thepolice arrested Christian Claude Butoyi, 33. The young man wasfound trying to sell Olga's phone to a local resident whonoticed text messages in Italian, became suspicious and alertedthe authorities. The police said they had also found at theman's home a stone with which the murderer had killed at leasttwo of the victims, along with the key to the convent. MrButoyi's confession came soon after. He has been charged notonly with the killings but also with the rape of the victims.This theory coincides with the version released by the policeimmediately after the discovery of the bodies, saying that rapehad been committed as well as murder. However, this version wasdenied by the priest Father Mario, and by the experts' reportsfrom doctors at the hospital where the bodies were examined.The theory of a land dispute was also denied. The young man,questioned by police, said that the land on which the parishchurch had been built belonged to his family. This was pureinvention and just one of many inconsistencies in a story inwhich, as the Xaverian missionaries report, "there are moredoubts than certainties". Immediately after the arrest thecommunity in the working class district of Kamenge,historically linked to the mission, were enraged and wanted tolynch the guilty party. But then, when the name of the arrestedman began to circulate, people were more disorientated thanangry. Christian Claude Butoyi is well known by local residentsand by the Xaverian missionaries alike. He is not a crazymurderer, but rather a "village idiot", widely consideredunable physically, mentally and temperamentally to conceive orcommit such a terrible crime. (AGI) . . .