Burkina Faso: ex-minister sentenced to 7 years in prison for "misappropriation of public funds

Vincent Dabilgou, Burkina Faso's former Minister of Transport, was sentenced on Thursday to eleven years in prison, seven of them firm, for "embezzlement of public funds", "illicit enrichment" and "money laundering", AFP has learned from judicial sources.

Mr. Dabilgou was a minister from 2018 to 2022, under the presidency of Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, overthrown by a putsch in January 2022.

The Ouagadougou High Court found Mr. Dabilgou "guilty" of "embezzlement of public funds", involving 1.12 billion FCFA (around 1.7 million euros), "illicit enrichment", "money laundering" and "concealed financing of a political party", notably the New Time for Democracy (NTD), the party he chairs.

He will also have to pay a fine of 3.3 billion FCFA (4.7 million euros) and the activities of his party have been suspended.

Four other people, including two of Mr. Dabilgou's former colleagues at the Ministry of Transport, also received prison sentences ranging from six to eleven years and heavy fines.

The court also ordered the confiscation of the former minister's assets, in the amount of the sums embezzled to the Treasury, and declared him ineligible for five years.

The NTD, a former presidential party, took 13 deputy seats in the 2020 legislative elections, up from 3 in 2015.

On September 30, 2022, a coup d'état brought Captain Ibrahim Traoré to power in Ouagadougou, overthrowing Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Damiba, who had led the first putsch toppling President Kaboré a few months earlier.