{"id":40790,"date":"2019-09-04T15:03:07","date_gmt":"2019-09-04T07:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=40790"},"modified":"2019-09-04T15:03:09","modified_gmt":"2019-09-04T07:03:09","slug":"burkina-faso-jails-two-generals-over-failed-2015-coup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=40790","title":{"rendered":"Burkina Faso jails two generals over failed 2015 coup"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Burkina<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Burkina Faso’s former foreign minister, Djibril Bassole (R), and General Gilbert Diendere<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

OUAGADOUGOU, Sept 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A military court in Burkina Faso convicted and jailed two generals on charges of masterminding a coup in the fragile Sahel state in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

General Gilbert Diendere was convicted on charges of murder and harming state security and handed a 20-year prison term, while General Djibrill Bassole, accused of treason, was ordered jailed for 10 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coup, carried out by troops loyal to ousted president Blaise Compaore, was thwarted by public protest but at the cost of 14 lives and nearly 300 wounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two generals were the leading figures in a 19-month trial of 84 people accused of the attempted overthrow of Burkina’s transitional government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coup was mounted by an elite unit of the army, the Presidential Security Regiment (RSP), on Sept 16, 2015, less than a month before scheduled general elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It fizzled out within a week after army-backed street protestors attacked the rebels’ barracks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compaore had fled to Ivory Coast in 2014 after 27 years in office marked by assassinations and mounting public unrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was forced out by a revolt sparked by his attempts to extend his grip on power, and a transitional government took the helm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diendere, 60, who had been Compaore’s right-hand man and a former head of the RSP, took the head of the putschists’ governing body, the so-called National Council for Democracy. Bassole, 62, was a foreign minister under Compaore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the prosecution, which had sought life sentences, said the pair had been instrumental in events. Diendere was “the main instigator in the coup” and Bassole “helped to prepare [it],” said military prosecutor Pascaline Zoungrana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among 10 rebel troops who arrested members of the transitional government, a sentence of 19 years was handed down against a non-commissioned officer, Eloi Badiel, and 17 years against another NCO, Moussa Nebie, nicknamed Rambo. The others in this group were given 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lieutenant-Colonel Mamadou Bamba, who had read the coup leaders’ statement on television, was given 10 years, five of them suspended. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Burkina Faso’s former foreign minister, Djibril Bassole (R), and General Gilbert Diendere OUAGADOUGOU, Sept 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A military court in Burkina Faso convicted and jailed two generals on charges of masterminding a coup in the fragile Sahel state in 2015. General Gilbert Diendere was convicted on charges of murder and harming state security and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40790"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40790\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}