Presidential guards get 10 to 20 years for torture death

A military tribunal in Ouagadougou sentenced three presidential guardsmen to between 10 and 20 years in prison for the murder of the driver of President Blaise Compaore’s brother, Francois, according to news reports. The head of the presidential guard at the time of the killing, Marcel Kafando, and Sergeant Edmond Kouaman each received 20-year sentences. Opusseini Yaro, an officer, was given 10 years. They have the right to appeal. Guardsmen Marcel Kabreu and Christophe Kombacere were freed for lack of evidence. The court awarded the victim’s family 200 million francs (US $227,016). The five guardsmen were charged with murdering the victim, David Ouedraogo, in January 1998. They suspected that Ouedraogo and his accomplices had stolen 19.8 million CFA francs (US $27,425) belonging to the younger Compaore, who denied ordering the guardsmen to torture his driver, AFP reported. Francois Compaore was at one time charged with “murder and handling a dead body”, AFP added, but the case was dropped. The news agency said that four of the soldiers have also been implicated in the killing of journalist Norbert Zongo, who was investigating Ouedraogo’s death. AFP reported that a crowd of some 3,000, mostly anti-government activists, reacted silently to the verdict. The head of an umbrella group of opposition politicians and human rights activists, Tole Sagnon, said in a BBC broadcast on Monday that they wanted the real authors of the crime brought to justice. Reporters Sans Frontieres said it was dissatisfied that the executioners were sentenced while the authors of the crime “continued to rule” the country. “It is inadmissible that Francois Compaore, an advisor at the presidency, has not been charged in the David Ouedraogo case when he (Francois) personally asked Marcel Kafando to come seize his driver,” RSF said.