The vice-president of Burundi's constitutional court -- which was about to decide on the legality of third term for President Pierre Nkurunziza -- said Monday he had fled the country so as not to cede to pressure on its judges.

"In my soul and conscience I decided not to put my signature to a ruling, a decision which is clearly not lawful that would be imposed from the outside, and which has nothing legal about it," Sylvere Nimpagaritse told AFP from outside the central African country.