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A general denied leading to a deadly 2015 coup attempt in the West African State of Burkina Faso, in his first trial testimony on Monday.
"I have ordered, nor planned, nor organized, nor executed what some people are calling a coup on September 16, 2015," Gilbert Diendere told a military court in the capital Ouagadougou.
"Diendere, who appeared in the courtroom in a red beret and military fatigues.
Diendere is the head of the elite Presidential Security Regiment (RSP), who is the president of Blaise Compaore, who was elected in a popular uprising in 2014.
Compaore ruled the train French colony for 27 years after coming to power after a military coup.
The trial opened in February 2012, with the help of the CEO.
The violence left 14 people dead and 270 injured.
Diendere is committed with treason, murder and threatening state security.
During the coup attempt, Diendere took the helm of the National Council for Democracy before becoming public opinion.
Diembere is among the 84 defendants in the trial, and another general and suspected ringleader, Djibrill Bbadole, who served as foreign minister under Compaore.
The day of the first day of the coup, the formation of the guards burst into a cabinet meeting and arrested the interim president, the prime minister and two ministers, then sequestered them in the presidential palace.
"In the face of this situation, a meeting was set up between the military leadership and the mediators – to form president Jean-Baptiste Ouedraogo and Cardinal Paul Ouedraogo," he said.
Those two sides then wanted to meet with the RSP to resolve the crisis, Diendere said.
"The armed forces chief of staff said … it was up to those who had launched the movement to do so," he said. "I found myself under the obligation to step forward even without having been behind" the movement, he testified.
Co-defendant Boureima Kere, a colonel who was chief of staff under transitional president Michel Kafando at the time of the coup, testified against Diendere on November 12 and accused army chiefs of pbadivity.
"Even if the army was not behind the coup it was backed by General Diendere's movement," he told the court.
Kere said Diendere had warned military brbad that they would be "considered enemies and treated as such" if they opposed the coup.
Two other co-defendants had testified against Diendere in July.
Eloi Badiel, considered the operational chief of the failed coup, told the court he had acted under the "indirect" orders of Diendere, who said he wanted the arrest of the transitional authorities.
Jean-Florent Nion, a member of the commando unit that arrested transition, testified that Diendere called the shots in the attempted coup.
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