Burkina Faso’s unelected legislature has unanimously adopted a new penal code restoring the death penalty for five offences, including high treason, terrorism, espionage, parricide and the importation of expired or prohibited products.
All 71 members of the legislature voted in favour of the revised code on Tuesday, according to Justice Minister Edasso Rodrigue Bayala.
The move reverses the abolition of the death penalty for ordinary crimes in 2018, under the country’s then democratically elected president, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré.
Burkina Faso’s military leader, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, has been in power since a coup in 2022.
Human Rights Watch has condemned the decision, warning that reinstating capital punishment could further undermine civil liberties under military rule.
The junta has faced criticism over its treatment of dissenting voices, including the detention of human rights defenders and journalists, the dissolution of political parties, and restrictions on media organisations, trade unions and civil society groups.
According to Human Rights Watch, authorities have also subjected critics to unlawful conscription, torture and enforced disappearances. The United Nations human rights agency has also been forced to leave the country, according to the report.
The government maintains that restoring the death penalty will help combat terrorism. However, rights advocates have raised concerns about weaknesses in the justice system and the risk of wrongful convictions, warning that executions would make any resulting injustice irreversible.
The last known execution in Burkina Faso took place in 1988, according to Human Rights Watch.
The landlocked West African country, with a population of about 23 million, continues to grapple with a severe security crisis as its authorities battle armed groups linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.
