acknowledged them after some hesitation; he explained that
in the evening of July 11, 2018, he went to his friend S.C.'s
house where he and other friends used to sleep; that he found
him inside the room with O.R.; that around 10 p.m., he came
back and found O.R. again, but this time with three other
boys, namely- S. M, Daou and Moumouni; that his four
friends told the girl that they wanted to have sexual relations
with her; that, as she objected, his companions beat her up
and forced her to wash the clothes of one of them; that the
victim's crying attracted someone to whom he asked to go
home simply because nothing was happening; answering the
question of the judicial police officer, O. I acknowledged that
he and his friends successfully had sex with O.R. that day and
before;
Upon completion of the investigation, the procedure was
transmitted to the State counsel of Faso at the High Court of
Bobo-Dioulasso; before this authority, O.I. retracted his
statement and declared that he had not performed any sexual
act with the victim; he said that he had made a false
confession, as a result of the bullying; he added that his
friends S.C, S.M. and the man named D. wanted to have
sexual relations with the victim and, when she objected, they
beat her. The Legal Department then brought proceedings
against O.I. for rape before the Juvenile Court judge and
issued a provisional custody order against him;
At the hearing of February 14, 2019, the case was retained
and judged; the civil party and its legal representatives did
not appear; the witness K.S. did not appear either; the
accused O.I. retracted again; he declared that when he arrived
at S.C.'s home, he was there with three other friends
alongside O.R; that they were lying with the young girl on a
mat; the accused, after initially maintaining that his friends
told him on his arrival that they had had consensual sexual
relations with the victim, retracted his statement and declared
that on his arrival, his friends instead told him that they had
forced sexual relations with the victim; he added that they
showed him her dirty underpants; that he lifted it up, held it
up in the air and tried to film it because his friends told him
that the girl was not clean; that because she was against his
will to film, his friends beat her up; that a person showed up
after hearing the screaming and crying of the victim and he
asked him to leave because nothing was happening;
3