- Returned the case before the Ouagadougou military trial chamber, as
previously constituted;
- Reserved costs.
Hearing before the Community Court of Justice, ECOWAS was held on 7 June
2016 at Abuja.
III.
ARGUMENTS AND PLEAS IN LAW OF THE PARTIES
THE APPLICANT (Mr. Djibril Yipéné Bassolé) insists in his written pleadings that
the recordings of his conversations had no legal basis. He argues that there is no
legal framework backing the tapping of the telephone conversation. As such, his
right to privacy was violated, as provided for in the instruments binding on
Burkina Faso.
Considering the lack of clarity of the circumstances within which the telephone
recordings were done, the Applicant claims that he is entitled to challenge the
authenticity of that procedure, on one hand, and on the other hand, call for a
legal consideration of the legitimacy of the method applied. Now, he avers that
the exercise of his rights is hampered by the trial judge of the military tribunal,
who, till then, had not deemed it fit to reply the two mails his Counsel had
addressed to him (mails dated 2 and 3 December 2015).
Given the foregoing circumstances, the Applicant maintains that the disputed
telephone conversations be set aside from the criminal proceedings in which he
is a party.
Mr. Djibril Yipéné Bassolé equally contests certain acts engaged in by the trial
judge of the military tribunal, notably the issuing of the orders by which he
dismisses the lawyers who constitute his Counsel as being “of foreign
nationality” in Burkina Faso – be they of French nationality or citizens of UEMOA
(West African Economic and Monetary Union) States. According to the
Applicant, such exclusion is contrary to both the domestic law of Burkina Faso
and the international commitments Burkina Faso has subscribed to (conventions
ratified by Burkina Faso or the norms of UEMOA binding on Burkina Faso).
THE DEFENDANT STATE (BURKINA FASO) first of all advances an argument as to
the Court’s having no jurisdiction to adjudicate on the matter brought before it,
at least as regards having to examine the provisions on the domestic law of
Burkina Faso.
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