Thomas Sankara assassination trial: the difficult question of hearing witnesses

People attend the opening of the trial of the alleged perpetrators of Thomas Sankara's assassination in Ouagadougou, October 11, 2021. AFP - OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT

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1 min

At the opening of the hearing this Monday morning of the trial of the assassin of former President Thomas Sankara, it was a question of agreeing on the list of witnesses.

They will be about sixty, including French.

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With our correspondent in Ouagadougou,

Among these witnesses are several personalities: retired soldiers, political figures or researchers.

Several witnesses cited in this case were not in the courtroom on Monday because they were outside

Among those absent from the trial,

, include Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, Foreign Affairs Advisor to François Mitterrand, Roland Dumas, French Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Jack Lang, French Minister of Culture at the time. facts.

Maître Prosper Farama, one of the lawyers for the civil parties, wanted all these witnesses absent from Burkina Faso to be heard by videoconference.

But "

 " retorts the military prosecutor.

So the lawyers of the civil parties propose to make the necessary material available to the court.

Finally, the president of the first chamber authorizes the hearing of these witnesses if this hearing is made by the military court through the Burkinabè Ministry of Defense, which must take care of it despite the reluctance of the defense lawyers.

These lawyers believe that there is no guarantee that these hearings will not be recorded, which is prohibited by the court.

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• Justice

• Thomas sankara

• Burkina Faso