Joseph Biroli

Joseph Biroli-Baranyanka or Joseph Biroli (28 May 1929 – 15 January 1963) was a Burundian politician and was the first Burundian to receive a university education. Born in 1929 to a prominent chief, he was a Ganwa of the Batare clan. He performed well as a student and earned a diploma from the Institut universitaire des Territoires d'Outre-Mer in 1953. After continuing his education at several other universities he took up work for the European Economic Community. In 1960 his brother Jean-Baptiste Ntidendereza co-founded the Christian Democratic Party (Parti Démocratique Chrétien, PDC), and Biroli became the party's president. His main political rival was Prince Louis Rwagasore, a Ganwa of the Bezi clan who led the Union for National Progress (Union pour le Progres National, UPRONA). Biroli was friendly to the Belgian colonial administration in Ruanda-Urundi, while UPRONA demanded immediate independence.

In May 1961 Ntidendereza replaced Brioli as PDC president, and the latter became head of the party's public relations. Burundi hosted legislative elections in September in 1961, which were handily won by UPRONA. In October Rwagasore was murdered, and the subsequent investigation implicated Biroli and Ntidendereza. Biroli was found guilty and initially sentenced to life in prison, but in a retrial he was sentenced to death and was executed alongside his brother and other co-conspirators in 1963.

Early life Joseph Biroli-Baranyanka was born on 28 May 1929. In 1949 he was admitted to the Institut universitaire des Territoires d'Outre-Mer in Antwerp. He performed well as a student and graduated in July 1953 with a diploma in colonial and political sciences. He then secured a degree in economics at the Catholic University of Leuven in September 1956

Political career Biroli supported a political union between Ruanda and Urundi. In 1960 his brother Jean-Baptiste Ntidendereza co-founded the Christian Democratic Party (Parti Démocratique Chrétien, PDC). Biroli subsequently became the party's president. Some accounts reported that Biroli had sexual relations with Iatrou and Kageorgis. The investigators concluded that Ntidendereza and Biroli planned the assassination. Iatrou denied this, while Ntidendereza initially implicated himself in the conspiracy before later recanting his testimony. Biroli admitted to attending a meeting with the other two where "it was decided to kill Rwagasore".

For his role in the plot, Biroli was initially sentenced to life in prison. On 30 June 1962, one day before Burundi's independence, Kageorgis was executed. Biroli wrote several letters from prison complaining of the miscarriage of justice and alleging torture. Following independence Burundi established a Supreme Court with retroactive competence, and on 27 October it ruled the previous trials to have violated the right to judgement by a jury established by the new constitution and ordered a retrial. On 27 November the lower court found Ntidendereza, Biroli, Nahimana, Iatrou, and Ntakiyica guilty and sentenced them to death. Officials at St Antony's College attempted to dispatch a lawyer to Burundi and petition Biroli's case to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, but were unable to intervene in time. The defendants' final appeal to the Supreme Court was denied, as were the attempts of the Belgian government to convince Mwami Mwambutsa IV to offer clemency, and on 15 January 1963 all five were publicly hanged in the Gitega stadium before thousands of people. With the PDC's loss in the legislative elections and the execution of Ntidendereza and Biroli, the party ceased to be a viable political force. Biroli and his brother were buried in the Mushasha cemetery in Gitega.