Criminal
Code pénal 2018 with terrorism offences and de facto abolition of the death penalty
Loi n° 025-2018 recodified criminal law and removed the death penalty from the ordinary Code. Anti-terrorism provisions have expanded substantially in response to the insurgency in the Sahel, including specialised investigation units and extended detention.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — Tribunal de grande instance ordinarily; a specialised judicial pole handles terrorism cases.
- Deadline — Garde à vue: 72 hours ordinary; substantially extended for terrorism offences
- Deadline — Prescription: 10 years for crimes, 3 years for délits
Governing law
- Loi n° 025-2018/AN du 31 mai 2018 portant Code pénal
- Loi n° 040-2019 portant Code de procédure pénale
- Loi n° 084-2015 relative à la répression des actes de terrorisme
In practice
The 2018 Code abolished the death penalty in ordinary criminal law, but the operative development in Burkinabè criminal justice is the anti-terrorism regime layered on top of it. Large parts of the national territory are outside effective state control, and courts in affected regions have relocated, so the gap between the Code as written and criminal justice as administered is wide.