Former Burkina Faso prime minister charged and jailed for murder

Luc-Adolphe Tiao, the last prime minister of Burkina Faso before the ousting of former president Blaise Compaore, has been charged for murder and imprisoned on Friday.

The Chief Prosecutor of Burkina Faso’s High Court told AFP that he was arrested and later jailed in connection with the popular uprising in 2014.

“The former prime minister Luc-Adolphe Tiao was placed under committal order led to his arrest and subsequent imprisonment at the Ouagadougou prison this (Friday) morning in connection with the investigation of the case on the popular uprising in October 2014,” Armand Ouedraogo told AFP.

“He was charged with murder, assault and battery and then complicity of all these acts,” he added.

This is the first indictment in relation to the 33 people killed during the uprising against Compaore in October 2014 which led to the fall of the regime.

Tiao who lived in exile in Ivory Coast for over a year and a half, returned to Burkina Faso last weekend, a week after the hearing of members of his government who remained in the country.

It was during the hearings that the police were delegated by the High Court on Tuesday to arrest him for his alleged role in the killings of protesters. Another former prime minister, General Isaac Zida, who is on exile in Canada after serving till the 2015 election after the ousting of Compaore, is under trial in Burkina Faso for “desertion in time of peace”.

Burkina Faso authorities led by President Roch Marc Christian Kabore have vowed to investigate crimes during the popular uprising in 2014.