Generals Gilbert Diendéré and Djibrill Bassolé, accused of being the brains of the failed coup of September 2015 in Burkina Faso, were sentenced to 20 years and 10 years in prison, Monday, September 2, by the military court of Ouagadougou. Other soldiers who participated were also sentenced to imprisonment.
Gilbert Diendéré, former right-hand man of former president Blaise Compaoré, was convicted of "state security attack" and "murder", and sentenced to 20 years in prison, according to the verdict by the court. He was also a former boss of the Presidential Security Regiment (RSP), a Praetorian guard protecting President Compaore.
Djibrill Bassolé, former foreign minister, was convicted of "treason" and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.
The dozen military members of the commando who had arrested members of the transitional government during this failed coup were also sentenced: 19 years in prison for Chief Warrant Officer Eloi Badiel, considered the leader of the putsch operations, 17 years for Chief Warrant Officer Nébie, said "Rambo", who had admitted to leading the group, and 15 years for the others.
Lieutenant-Colonel Mamadou Bamba, who had read the press release of the putschists on television, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, 5 of which were suspended.
Marathon trial
The sentences handed down by the military court are lower than the requisitions of the prosecution, which had asked for life imprisonment for Diendéré and Bassolé, and 25 years against the members of the commando. The lawyers of the two generals pleaded the acquittal, finding that the trial proved neither the guilt nor the precise implication of the two men.
The verdict puts an end to this marathon trial, out of the ordinary, judging a total of 84 defendants, six of whom were finally acquitted.
On 16 September 2015, RSP soldiers attempted to overthrow the transitional government in power, without success. The latter was set up after the fall of Blaise Compaore, hunted October 31, 2014 by a popular uprising after 27 years in power. The RSP's coup against the return to democracy was defeated a dozen days later by the population and loyalist units of the army, at the cost of 14 dead and 270 wounded.
The outcome of the trial could allow, according to observers, to begin an early reconciliation in Burkina Faso, still divided since the fall of Blaise Compaore, in view of the presidential election of 2020, and to tie the links within the army, strongly shaken by the failed putsch and whose hierarchy has been widely questioned.
Many political and civil actors have called for a "reinstatement" of the ex-RSP officers who were dissolved after the coup, which had the country's first special antiterrorist unit, to fight against the jihadist groups that have increased the number of attacks. the country since 2015, killing more than 500 people.
With AFP