Bujumbura - Burundi's Supreme Court upheld a 13-year jail term against a former head of the presidential party accused of plotting against the state, court officials said Tuesday. The court upheld the ruling against Hussein Radjabu and five co-accused who challenged the verdict handed down in April 2008. Two other suspects were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.

The former top official of President Pierre Nkurunziza's National Council for the Defence of Democracy (CNDD-FDD) was ousted in 2007 and accused by the attorney general of recruiting rebels to destabilise the state.