International and Burundian rights organisations condemned on Friday a journalist's imprisonment, saying it demonstrated the judiciary had become a "tool for persecuting all voices of dissent".
Sandra Muhoza was sentenced in December last year to over a year in prison after she was convicted of "undermining the integrity of the national territory" and "discrediting the country's image".
The 42-year-old online journalist has been detained in the economic capital Bujumbura since her arrest in April last year by the National Intelligence Service.
In a joint statement, 23 organisations -- including Belgian, French and Swiss groups -- said she was one of a number "arbitrarily detained" and urgently called for her release.
It said the detention "clearly demonstrates the extent to which the judiciary has become a tool for persecuting all voices of dissent."
"Arbitrary arrests, abductions and enforced disappearances have become commonplace, especially against members of opposition political parties, human rights defenders, journalists and citizens presumed to be such," it said.
"This is a real threat to press freedom and freedom of expression in Burundi."
President Evariste Ndayishimiye, who took power in 2020, has been praised for gradually ending years of isolationism under former leader Pierre Nkurunziza's chaotic and bloody rule.
But Ndayishimiye has not improved the country's record on human rights and Burundi ranks 108th out of 180 countries for press freedom, according to RSF.