- The Republic of Burkina Faso
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56. According to Counsel to the Republic of Burkina Paso, since
Plaintiff was no longer in police custody, but in preventive
detention, the only alternative for him was to apply for provisional
release; he therefore erred in law, to plead with Court, to order the
investigating judge, to effect his immediate release.
I
57. Counsel to Defendant claims that there is no means of fact or of
law that underlines such a claim on the part of Plaintiff. This is
because, on the one hand, the legally approved period for
preventive detention has not yet expired; on the other hand, there
was no vice, nor any irregularity attached to such a detention;
finally, even if the police custody was illegal, as it were, it did not
have any negative impact on the following stages of the procedure,
because the period of police custody is not an obligatory stage, in
the procedure, and which must take place before the period of
preventive detention, in such a way that if one is stained with
irregularity, the other must necessarily be so affected. He thus
deduced that a probable canceling of the police custody has a
limited effect, and cannot have any consequence, as to lead to
the release of Mr Badini Salfo.
58. He further points out that if by any eventuality the Court accedes
to Plaintiffs plea, for release, while the proceedings are still on goii1g, the Republic of Burkina Paso .and other countries are at the
risk of having highway ·armed robbers continue their menace, with
impunity, within the sub - region, thereby compromising the fight
against money laundering, and organized cri1nes. Hence he pleads
with the Court to examine,. in concreto, the delicate nature of
investigations on highway · armed robbery in Africa, and the
necessary duration for a trans-border investigation an organized
crime, involving a very dangerous gang having external branches
and in which the Gendarmerie of two neighbouring countries are
cooperating, and, consequently, reject the allegations made by
Plaintiff.
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