Charges dropped in murdered journalist’s case

Rights groups in Burkina Faso say they are outraged over the dismissal of charges against the former head of the presidential guard in connection with the 1998 murder of prominent journalist Norbert Zongo.

Prosecutors on Wednesday said they were dropping charges against warrant officer Marcel Kafando for lack of evidence. The prosecutor said a key witness failed to recall details of a meeting with Kafando days before Zongo’s murder.

Kafando was the only defendant in the case and had been convicted of the murder that Zongo was investigating at the time of his death.

"It is scandalous and shameful for our country's judicial system," said Jean Claude Meda, president of the Burkina Faso Journalists Association (AJB)."Since it was a political assassination, we cannot rule out pressures on the investigative judge to dismiss the case."

Zongo, publisher of the weekly Independent, was killed in December 1998 while investigating the murder of David Ouedraogo, the chauffeur of the junior brother of President Blaise Compaore. The burned and bullet-ridden bodies of Zongo and his three companions were found in Zongo’s car, 100 kilometers outside the capital Ouagadougou.

An independent investigative body concluded in 1999 that Zongo’s death was linked to his investigations and designated six presidential bodyguards as "serious suspects" in the murder.

"It is alarming that despite an independent commission and eight years of investigation, the authorities have dropped the indictment," said Joel Simon, executive director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. "If the Zongo case is shelved, it will send a terrible signal of impunity to the killers of journalists, and Zongo's murder will continue to cast a shadow over the country's independent press.”

Zongo’s death sparked unprecedented socio-political unrest in Burkina Faso and the government conceded to set up an independent inquiry body and undertook some political reforms.

Meanwhile, the lawyer for Zongo’s family, Benewinde Sankara, has appealed the verdict.

"I am skeptical over the capacity of our judicial system and the men running it to truly make a fair decision,” he said.

bo/cs