General Gilbert Diendere has denied leading a deadly 2015 coup attempt in the West African state of Burkina Faso, in his first trial testimony on Monday.
“I neither ordered, nor planned, nor organised, nor executed what some people are calling a coup d’etat on September 16, 2015,” General Diendere told a military court in the capital Ouagadougou.
Gilbert Diendere is the former head of the elite Presidential Security Regiment (RSP) that guarded president Blaise Compaore, who was ousted in a popular uprising in 2014. The violence that ensued left 14 people dead and 270 injured.
He is charged with treason, murder and threatening state security.
The trial opened in February.