Burkina Faso's parliament on Tuesday adopted a revised penal code that restores the death penalty, nearly a decade after the West African country abolished capital punishment, the Justice Ministry said in a statement, Reuters reported.
Source: Reuters
The 71-member assembly voted unanimously for the legislation after Justice Minister Edasso Rodrigue Bayala presented the bill on behalf of the government, the ministry said. The new code, the ministry said, "aims to strengthen public order, consolidate the nation's fundamental values and guarantee security for people and property", News Central TV reported.
Source: News Central TV
State-run media reported that the revised code reintroduces the death penalty for crimes including terrorism, espionage, treason and patricide, as well as importing expired or banned products that result in death, according to the state news agency AIB.
Death penalty abolished in 2018; restored by a unanimous vote of the 71-member transitional assembly; last known judicial execution in the country was in 1988, according to Amnesty International.
Bayala said the relative leniency of the previous penal code had helped armed groups recruit members. Burkina Faso, ruled by a military junta since a 2022 coup, has struggled for years to contain an Islamist insurgency linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State that has killed thousands of people and displaced millions. Junta leader Captain Ibrahim Traore had announced plans last year to reinstate the death penalty.
Rights groups have opposed the move. Human Rights Watch said, when the Council of Ministers first approved the bill last year, that reinstating the death penalty could deepen repression, entrench a climate of fear and send a chilling message to critics of the military government. Amnesty International, which had urged the country not to bring back capital punishment, says Burkina Faso's last known judicial execution was in 1988.