OUAGADOUGOU (Burkina Faso), Sept 2 — Two senior allies of Burkina Faso’s deposed former president Blaise Compaore were sentenced to up to 20 years in prison today for organising a 2015 coup attempt against a transitional government.

Protesters, angered by Compaore’s attempt to change the constitution to extend his 27-year rule, forced him to flee the West African nation in 2014. He now lives in exile in neighboring Ivory Coast.

Troops from the elite Presidential Security Regiment under the command of General Gilbert Diendere, Compaore’s right-hand man, took members of the transitional government hostage less than a month before elections the following year.

The week-long power grab failed, but 14 people were killed and more than 250 others were wounded as they attempted to resist the putsch.

Former spy chief Diendere was sentenced to 20 years in prison for murder and threatening state security.

Compaore’s former foreign minister Djibril Bassole, who was accused of being the coup’s mastermind, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for treason. — Reuters