Burkina Faso issues warrant against Ivory Coast lawmaker

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) - Burkina Faso's military tribunal has issued an arrest warrant for Ivory Coast's parliamentary speaker for his alleged role in a short-lived coup in September, an official said Friday.

The warrant against speaker Guillaume Soro was issued through Interpol and the foreign ministry, according to prosecutor Col. Sita Sangare.

Soro allegedly offered to give support to coup leaders in phone calls to Burkina Faso's former foreign affairs minister Djibril Bassole, Sangare said, adding that the calls will be used as part of the prosecution. The calls, however, have not yet been authenticated.

Bassole was arrested and jailed at the end of September on accusations that he helped support coup leader Col. Gilbert Diendere, who is also now jailed. Bassole has denied the allegations. Diendere has been charged with crimes against humanity for the deaths of 15 people and the wounding of about 250 others around the coup attempt.

Bassole was a high-ranking minister under former Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore, who is now in exile in Ivory Coast after being ousted in a popular uprising in October 2014. There is also an international arrest warrant out for Compaore for the death of Burkina Faso's ex-revolutionary president, Thomas Sankara, who was killed in 1987. Diendere is also charged with complicity in that assassination.

The September coup by the presidential guard lasted only a week, after which the guard was disbanded. The transitional government returned to power until Burkina Faso's November election ushered in new leaders.