A group of lawyers from eight countries has denounced the "illegal detention" of a Burkinabe colleague and civil society figure, Guy Hervé Kam, a former member of Ousmane Sonko's lawyers' pool, who has been imprisoned for more than a year in Ouagadougou's military prison for his alleged participation in a "conspiracy," in a statement sent to AFP on Thursday.

In Burkina Faso, the military regime, which emerged from a coup d'état in September 2022 and is led by Captain Ibrahim Traoré, is regularly accused of repressing figures considered hostile to the government.

The group of around twenty lawyers called on "the military judicial authorities to urgently put an end to the illegal detention of Maître Kam Guy Hervé Rommel," in a statement dated Wednesday.

They come from Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger, Senegal, Mali, Benin, the Comoros and France.

"We denounce an intolerable denial of justice, the sole aim of which is to keep Maître Kam Guy Hervé Rommel in prison, even in the absence of any legal basis, in contradiction with the rule of law and justice," they wrote.

They add that in July 2024, the Ouagadougou military court "overturned the decision to detain" their colleague and "considered that there was no serious and consistent evidence to support the participation of Maître Kam Guy Hervé Rommel in the offenses with which he was charged."

Guy Hervé Kam, a well-known Burkinabe lawyer and leader of the civil society movement Sens (Servir et non se servir), was first arrested on the night of January 24-25, 2024, at the airport in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, by men in civilian clothes, and then detained in state security premises for four months.

Mr. Kam is also the co-founder of the Balai citoyen movement, which played a key role in the fall of former President Blaise Compaoré's regime in 2014. He is also known for having been the lawyer for the family of former President Thomas Sankara (1983-1987), who was killed in a coup d'état.

On March 7, a court ordered his immediate release, a decision upheld on appeal on April 23. Released on May 29, he was immediately rearrested and charged the next day with "conspiracy and criminal association."

Released under judicial supervision on July 10, he was then arrested and imprisoned in the military prison for the same reason.

He "has still not been questioned about the facts he is accused of, despite our formal request to do so," the group said indignantly.