Italy has arrested a 50-year-old Burundian man in connection with the murder of three Italian missionary nuns in the east African country's commercial capital, Bujumbura, more than 10 years ago, prosecutors in Parma said on Thursday.

Guillaume Harushimana is suspected of instigating, jointly organising and logistically supporting the murders of Olga Raschietti, 83, Lucia Pulici, 75, and Bernadetta Boggian, 79, in two separate attacks on September 7-8, 2014.

Monica Moschioni, a lawyer appointed by a court to represent Harushimana, told Reuters she could not say whether he would plead guilty or not guilty, as she had not yet spoken to him. She was due to do so on Friday, she added.

KILLINGS ORDERED BY GENERAL, PROSECUTORS SAY

The killings were ordered by General Adolphe Nshimirimana, then head of the Burundi secret police, who was assassinated in 2015, the prosecutors said. Harushimana was one of the general's close associates, they added.

According to investigators, the nuns may have been killed for refusing to provide medical aid to Burundian militias deployed in Congo, disputes over the funding of a youth centre in Kamenge, or as part of a sacrificial rite.

Burundi authorities did not respond to a request for comment.

Prosecutors said four people were suspected of carrying out the killings. Two had made radio confessions, and one, described as the general's bodyguard, was questioned in Parma and had partially admitted the facts, they added. The fourth person has not been identified.

The presumed killers entered the nuns' compound disguised in clerical robes and left wearing police uniforms, prosecutors said. In 2014, Reuters reported that two of the three victims were raped and decapitated.

Italian prosecutors said they reopened investigations into the murders in 2024, thanks to leads from a book by investigative journalist Giusy Baioni, leading them to testimonies from other nuns which had not been heard by Burundian authorities.

Harushimana's name had already emerged in connection with the murders, Italian prosecutors said, adding that he had obtained a travel visa to Italy in 2018 to attend a training course in the northern city of Parma.

They said he was taken in for questioning at the time in Parma, but denied any involvement, saying he had been outside Burundi at the time of the murders, and providing passport stamps as evidence of his absence from the country.