Consequently, the allegation made by the Applicants Compaoré was never heard by the court is unfounded. according to which Frangois The Respondent State cannot therefore be accused of having obstructed justice in that regard. 5) The issue of involvement of civil parties® in the procedure 136. Counsel for the Applicants explained in response to a question from the Court at the Public Hearing on 29 November 2013, and or purposes of fairness of the proceedings, that between 2001 and 2006, the parties claiming damages had not been informed about the proceedings, were not involved in investigations before 2006, and had never been party to any adversarial procedures involving them. 137. In its letter dated 18 December 2013 forwarding the documents requested by the Court at the Public Hearing of 29 November 2013, the Respondent State explained that under the Burkina Faso procedures required only if the Investigating Magistrate believes that they may “were Criminal Procedure lead to the discovery of the truth”. It added Code [articles 111 and 118], adversarial that “in the instant case, although the Investigating Magistrate was of the view that confrontation between Marcel Kafando (the suspect) and Jean Racine Yameogo (the witness) was necessary for the truth to be established, he did not however deem it necessary to confront the suspect with the parties in the civil suit as they were all beneficiaries and were not eye witnesses to the crime”. It concludes by pleading that in any case “the Investigating Magistrate never refused to organize adversarial proceedings between the suspect and the parties in the civil suit, which proceedings could have been sought by the Applicants, yet neither they nor their numerous Counsel did so”. 138. Examination does show, of the documents produced by the Respondent, as earlier indicated, on the one hand, that no adversarial procedure had occurred between the suspect and the civil suit parties, and on the other, that the civil parties were heard by the Investigating Magistrate on 22 February 2006 and 4 May 2006, respectively. 5 In the civil law system, a civil party is an individual who has personally suffered damages directly caused by an offence, who brings against the author of such damage a civil action in reparation for the harm caused by the offence (Legal vocabulary, Gérard CORNU, ed., 8 ed., 2009, p. 664. 7" @