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1. Subject of the Application
1.
The Court is seized of this matter by way of an Application dated 14 June
2013 and filed by Barristers John R.W.D Jones, Q.C and Yakare-Oule (Nani)
Jansen, acting on behalf of Lohe lssa Konate, a Burkinabe national and Editor-inChief of L'Ouragan Weekly published in Burkina Faso; the Application was received
at the Registry on 17 June 2013 and registered as No. 004/2013.
2.
Attached to the Application is a request for provisional measures on which the
Court ruled by Order dated 4 October 2013.
A. Facts of the case
3.
Prosecution for defamation, public insult and contempt of Court was initiated against the
Applicant following the publication, in L'Ouragan on 1 August 2012, of an article written by him
and titled "Contrefacon et traffic de faux billets de banque- Le Procureur du Faso, 3 policiers et
un cadre de banque, parrains des bandits' ("Counterfeiting and laundering of fake bank notes the Prosecutor of Faso, 3 Police Officers and a Bank Official- Masterminds of Banditry'') as
well as an Article by Roland Ouedraogo titled "Le Procureurdu Faso: un torpilleurde Ia justice'.
(The Prosecutor of Faso- a saboteur of Justice"). The Applicant had published a second article
written by himself in another issue of L'Ouragan dated 8 August 2012; that article was titled
"Deni de justice- Procureur du Faso: un justicier
voyou?'~
("Miscarriage of Justice- the
Prosecutor of Faso: a rogue officer").
4.
Having
been
accused
in
all
three
above-mentioned
articles,
the
Prosecutor, Placide Nikiema, filed a complaint for defamation, public insult and
contempt of Court, against the Applicant and Mr. Ouedraogo. It is on these
grounds that criminal proceedings were brought and damages sought, against
the Applicant, before the Ouagadougou High Court.
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