Burkina Faso: junta pushes for prosecution of officials in corruption case

The Korag, an oversight body established last year in Burkina Faso with the mandate to “monitor the implementation of the country’s strategic vision” during its transitional period, has brought forward grave accusations of corruption. In a comprehensive statement, the Korag details a four-year-old case involving customs agents who are alleged to have extorted money from road transporters seeking passage for their trucks.

According to the newly formed institution, investigators possess irrefutable material evidence of this racketeering. This includes substantial cash sums discovered in the officials’ offices and homes, along with multiple witnesses and video recordings capturing them in the act.

Despite this overwhelming evidence, the suspects were granted a dismissal of charges, a decision strongly condemned by the junta. The transitional government accuses an attorney and ten high-ranking magistrates from the Ouagadougou Court of Appeal of accepting bribes to secure the customs officers’ release and, furthermore, of revealing the identities of the prosecution’s witnesses.

The Korag vehemently labels this outcome a “judicial charade” and “a serious breakdown in the chain of justice and witness protection.” These circumstances, it argues, provided sufficient justification for the arrest of the magistrates last month. The junta has committed to enforcing “disciplinary sanctions against unscrupulous actors within the judicial body, without excluding legal prosecution.”

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