Burkina Faso coup general ‘charged with attacking state security’

General Gilbert Diendere (right) and Djibrill Bassolé have allegedly been charged with ‘attacking state security’

The general behind Burkina Faso’s failed coup was charged, together with a former top aide to ousted president Blaise Compaoré, with “murder” and “attacking state security” on Tuesday, judicial sources said.



General Gilbert Diendere and Djibrill Bassole, a former foreign minister under Compaoré, were also charged with “collusion with foreign forces to destabilise internal security”, “causing intentional injury” and “intentional destruction of property” over the short-lived September 17 putsch, the sources said.

The pair were remanded in custody.

Diendere had given himself up last week after after taking refuge at the residence of the Vatican’s ambassador to the west African country just before an army raid on the barracks of his elite, Compaoré-loyal Presidential Security Regiment.

He had said he was willing to face justice.

Bassole, by contrast, denied any involvement in the coup, his Paris-based lawyer Alexandre Varaut said last week.

Bassole was among the former members of Compaoré’s regime who were barred from running in upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections on the grounds they had had backed Compaoré’s bid to extend his 27-year grip on power.

One of the demands of the putschists was that the elections be “inclusive”, meaning that Compaoré loyalists like Bassole, who had announced a bid for president, be allowed to run for office.

After four days they agreed to hand back power to the interim government that has been running Burkina Faso since Compaoré’s ouster in a popular uprising in October 2014.

Ten people were killed in the September disturbances, according to the interim government.