Ouagadougou The former chief of staff of the ex-president, Blaise Compaoré, General Gilbert Diendéré indicated Wednesday, before the military court that he “did not think to be judged one day ”in the Thomas Sankara affair.
The accused Gilbert Diendéré was heard on Wednesday for the second day concerning the assassination of Captain Thomas Sankara and his companions in misfortune.
According to the former chief of staff of ex-president Blaise Compaoré “he did not think he would one day be judged” in the Thomas Sankara case.
In the opinion of General Gilbert Diendéré, he only returns the facts he experienced on the day of the events to the Council of the Entente.
The former deputy commander-in-chief of the National Commando Training Center (CNEC) in Po is being prosecuted for “complicity in an attack on state security, complicity in murder and concealment of corpses”.
To hear it, he asked for a reinforcement to secure the Council of the Entente on the day of the events.
The defendant specified that he saw bodies bathed in blood on the day of the events of October 15, 1987 but did not take the initiative to approach them.
The lawyers for the civil party, Me Guy Hervé Kam and Me Prosper Farama noted that the defendant Diendéré uses the same strategy as that of the trial of the failed coup of September 15, 2015 led by the former presidential security regiment (RSP).
According to them, the accused makes believe that it is the security elements who are always involved in the business and not him.
According to another lawyer of the Sankara family, Me Séraphin Somé, the defendant Gilbert Diendéré only quotes in his interrogation the names of the deceased and absent people.
In particular Gaspard Somé, Azouma Ouédraogo known as OTIS, commander Hyacinthe Kafando, Blaise Compaoré, all absent from the historic trial.
For one of the defense lawyers, Me Paul Kéré, General Gilbert Diendéré lent himself to questions from the lawyers of the civil party during his questioning.
Me Kéré underlined that his client defended himself well by relating “perfectly” the facts which happened on October 15, 1987 to the Council of the Entente.
“I think when you tell the truth you don’t need to be wrong,” he told reporters.
Me Paul Kéré recalled that General Diendéré never took the life of anyone in the Thomas Sankara and companions affair.
“Civil party lawyers are within their rights to ask their questions. All they do is go find the general in his last corner to try to understand the facts, ”he said.
As a reminder, General Gilbert Diendéré was sentenced to 20 years in prison in the case of the failed RSP putsch against the Transition in September 2015.
Source: Burkina Information Agency