On 21 September 2023 at the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Ouaga II, a defamation trial was held in relation to the transaction protocol signed between the Essakane mine and the State. The newspaper has been accused of defamation by the Minister of the Economy and Finance, Dr Aboubacar Nacanabo, the Director General of Customs, Mathias Kadiogo, and the Director General of Taxes, Daouda Kirakoya. This follows an article published in Le Reporter No. 360 from 15 to 30 June 2023, in which the newspaper reported that the above-mentioned individuals caused the State to lose 97 billion FCFA in connection with the transactional protocol agreement with the Essakane mine. Mines Actu Burkina followed the hearing today.
Boureima Ouédraogo, Director of Publication of the newspaper Le Reporter, is charged with defamation and the editor in chief Aimé Nabaloum, author of the article, is charged with complicity in defamation.
At the start of the trial, the judge asked: “Do you have any proof of what you say in your diary? “
“Yes! ” replies Aimé Nabaloum. As proof, he cites the transactional agreement protocol between the Essakane mine and the State and the customs settlement document.
The journalist also cites correspondence from the High Authority for State Control and the Fight against Corruption (Autorité supérieure de Contrôle d’État et de Lutte contre la Corruption – ASCE/LC), which claims to have investigated the matter and filed a report with the public prosecutor’s office of the Tribunal de grande instance de Ouaga I.
But the prosecutor said that this correspondence did not constitute evidence because the ASCE/LC report was not in the case file.
As the report was at TGI I, a note was sent to the Ouaga I public prosecutor’s office, but to date the Ouaga I public prosecutor’s office has not submitted the ASCE/LC report to the Ouaga II public prosecutor’s office.
Nevertheless, the journalist continued to present evidence. According to him, in the minutes of the case, Essakane had to pay the State 24 billion FCFA in duties and 73 billion FCFA in fines, making a total of more than 97 billion FCFA.
How much did Essakane actually pay? The prosecutor asked the journalist. “In the settlement agreement protocol, it is stated that Essakane must pay 11 billion FCFA in customs duties and taxes and 3 billion FCFA in fines. But the liquidation document states that Essakane has only paid just over 2 billion FCFA. And even at the time of publication of the newspaper, this sum had not yet been paid”, the journalist replied to the prosecutor. After the editor-in-chief, it was his director of publication who faced the judges.
“Essakane agreed to pay 73 billion FCFA in fines, as stated in the minutes it signed. But in the settlement agreement protocol, the State only took 3 billion FCFA. So, from that point on, the State’s interests were ignored. We are accused of taking liberties with those we accuse in our article. If out of 73 billion FCFA in fines, they only accepted 3 billion, Mr President, I don’t know if there is another expression to describe that”, declared Boureima Ouédraogo, Publishing Director of the newspaper Le Reporter.
After his explanations, the prosecutor considered that in view of the evidence provided by the defendants (the editor-in-chief of Le Reporter and its publication director) and in view of the contradictions provided by the opposing party, it was important to request the appearance of certain experts and professionals to clarify the case for the judge, as he (the prosecutor) could not determine on his own whether the evidence was credible in order to make his requisition. This implies a postponement of the trial so that the people requested by the prosecutor can appear.
After heated debates, the hearing was suspended. 20 minutes later, the trial resumed, only to end immediately. The judge adjourned the trial until 12 October 2023 so that the victims (the Directors General of Customs and Tax, the Minister of Finance, the cashier at the Customs office and an expert could appear to shed more light on the technical elements.
As a reminder, Boureima Ouédraogo and Aimé Nabaloum had already appeared in court on 14 September 2023. Following this first appearance, the trial was adjourned to 21 September 2023 to allow the defence of the two accused to obtain the ASCE/LC report.
Georges Youl
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