By Hazel Gandhi
A video showing a man being beaten with sticks is viral online with the false claim that it shows the public flogging of Vincent Dabilgou, the former Minister of Transport of Burkina Faso.
BOOM found that the claims are false, the video misidentifies the man as Dabilgou who was jailed to 11 years in prison for financial fraud in August 2023.
The video is being shared by Indian accounts on X with a photo of Dabilgou and the caption, "WATCH: Burkina Faso's former Minister of Transport, Vincent Dabilgou has been sent to the public for a thorough beating after he was found guilty of embezzling €1.7 million and later sentenced to 11 years in prison. India ???"
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FACT CHECK
BOOM found that the claims are false, the man in the video is not Vincent Dabilgou.
Vincent Dabilgou, the Transport Minister of West African nation Burkina Faso from 2018-2022, was sentenced to 11 years in prison by the Ouagadougou high court in August 2023. Charges against him include embezzlement of public funds and money laundering to the tune of 1.7 million euros and a fine of 4.7 million euros.
We ran a search for some photos of Vincent Dabilgou and found clear distinctions between him and the man in the viral video.
We then ran a search in English and French to look for any news reports about the public flogging of Dabilgou, but did not find any results.
We also reached out to Ange Lévi Jordan MEDA, Editorial Manager at Faso Check, a fact-checking organisation based in Burkina Faso, who confirmed that the video did not show Vincent Dabilgou. He also added that the video did not show any former minister of the country, let alone Dabilgou.
BOOM was unable to independently verify the exact location and time of this video, however, it does not show Burkina Faso's former Minister of Transport.
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