Ouagadougou, The former commander of the national gendarmerie, Jean Pierre Palm said Monday, before the military court that “the shots lasted all night”, the day of the assassination of President Thomas Sankara and his twelve companions in misfortune.
The accused Jean Pierre Palm and former head of security under the Blaise Compaoré era was for his second day this Monday, before the Military Tribunal, in the case of Thomas Sankara and his companions.
According to the retired colonel-major, “the shots lasted all night” on October 15, 1987 at the Entente council, the site of the assassination of the father of the Burkinabè revolution.
The accused Palm is being prosecuted for “complicity in an attack on the security of the State”.
Director of State Security from 1986 to 1987 and that of Studies and Planning of the Ministry of Defense (1987), Jean Pierre Palm explained that the shots were heavy at the beginning and sporadic afterwards.
He says he went to an acquaintance in particular, old Barry after the events and stayed there until the next day at 8am.
“I was not on October 14, 1987 with Blaise Compaoré”, he answered a question from the civil party.
The former commander of the national gendarmerie specified that the wiretap housed in his department had the role of transmission but not of recording of wiretaps.
According to him, he received the intelligence through the system to ensure the security of the country but was unaware of its operation.
Regarding an inflammatory leaflet against President Sankara raised by the family’s lawyers, Me Olivier Badolo, Me Ferdinand Zepa and Me Prosper Farama, the accused Palm claimed not to be aware of this.
According to lawyers for the civil party, the retired colonel-major remains “the black box of the situation” and only manipulates the court and the military prosecution.
“It is a chance for us today to be in a democratic regime. In the past I’m sorry, everyone tried to save their life, ”he said.
In defense of Mr. Palm, Me Moumouny urged his colleagues not to judge his client on the basis of his career in the gendarmerie but rather on the facts.
For him, his client only restores the facts he experienced during the events of October 15, 1987.
After him, it was the accused Ninda Pascal Tondé dit Manga Naaba who was called to the bar.
Mr. Tondé is being prosecuted for “witness tampering”.
He was considered a witness at the start of his hearing with the examining magistrate before being categorized as an accused subsequently.
The hearing will continue tomorrow Tuesday with General Gilbert Diendéré prosecuted for “attack on state security, complicity in murder, concealment of corpses and bribery of witnesses”.
As a reminder, Gilbert Diendéré has already been sentenced to 20 years in prison in the failed coup d’état of September 16, 2015.
Source: Burkina Information Agency