Coup leader's wife convicted

A Burkina Faso military tribunal has handed down a 30-year jail sentence to the wife of a general convicted of leading a deadly coup attempt four years ago. The prison term imposed on Fatoumata Diendere exceeds the 20-year sentence given to her husband Gilbert Diendere on Monday. As previously reported in Legalbrief Today, he was convicted of masterminding the 2015 plot against the west African country's transitional government. A report on the News24 site notes that dozens of defendants, including top generals and politicians, were put on trial over the attempted coup, which killed 14 people and wounded 270. Fatoumata Diendere was convicted in abstentia of murder, and assault and harming state security. According to the military prosecutor, she had 'suggested in a phone call to her husband that he start a rebellion from the Po region when she knew that the coup would fail, and that he would incur the maximum penalty'. Diendere's main co-plotter, General Djibrill Bassole, was sentenced to 10 years when the first verdicts against 84 defendants were issued on Monday. Another eight suspects were convicted and sentenced to between 10 and 30 years in prison.