Lawyers in Burundi called Tuesday for an opposition leader to be jailed for five years for accusing the ruling party of preparing a "genocide".

Leonce Ngendakumana, president of the main coalition opposition party, is accused of making "damaging allegations, false accusations and racist incitement," in a letter he penned in February to UN chief Ban Ki-moon. He accused the ruling CNDD-FDD of preparations similar to that which took place in neighbouring Rwanda before the genocide of 1994.

Prosecutor Eric Ndikumana, reading excerpts of the letter, said the politician had warned of "political-ethnic genocide in Burundi." He also likened the party's Imbonerakure youth wing to Rwanda's 1994 genocidal Interahamwe militia, and a radio station to Kigali's Radio Mille Collines, which 20 years ago broadcast encouragements to the kill.

Ngendakumana, chairman of the Democratic Alliance for Change (ADC), which includes nine opposition parties, is accused of tarnishing the image of the ruling party of and Rema-FM radio, prosecuting lawyers said. The CNDD-FDD party and Rema radio have demanded over $66,000 in damages.

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Burundi emerged in 2006 from 13 years of brutal civil war, and its political climate remains fractious ahead of presidential polls due in June 2015. Ngendakumana, who denounced what he called a "political trial", repeated allegations of "extrajudicial killings", torture, and moves to quash the constitution, a key part of the peace deal that ended over a decade of war.

Rights groups including Amnesty have said the Imbonerakure group has strong links to the security service, accusing it of "perpetrating human rights abuses with impunity."
The government has denied the report.

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A United Nations official was expelled in April after a confidential note reporting the distribution of weapons by the government to the Imbonerakure was leaked.

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