The long-awaited verdict puts the six-month trial for Thomas Sankara’s assassination on October 15, 1987, to an end.
Former President Blaise Compaoré was sentenced to life in jail for the assassination of his predecessor, the revered Thomas Sankara, by a Burkinabe court.
Sankara was slain on October 15, 1987, during a coup led by his friend and comrade-in-arms Compaoré. The six-month trial came to an end on Wednesday with the long-awaited judgement.
Compaoré was being tried alongside 13 others in Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou, and military prosecutors had asked a 30-year term for him.
Two other significant suspects were also sentenced to life in prison. Gilbert Diendéré, one of the leaders of the 1987 coup and the leader of the 2015 coup, and Hyacinthe Kafando, the head of Compaoré’s guards at the time, are the two men.
Compaoré was deposed in a 2014 rebellion and fled to Ivory Coast, where he was granted citizenship. In contrast to Diendéré, who is in detention, he was tried in his absence with Kafando.
Eight other defendants were sentenced to prison terms ranging from three to twenty years by the military tribunal that presided over the case, while three others were acquitted.
Sankara, a pan-Africanist politician who came to power in 1983, was assassinated together with 12 other government leaders at the age of 37. Compaoré took over as his successor and ruled until he was deposed in 2014.
The sentencing on Wednesday was a significant move in the case, which has been closely monitored by Sankara’s supporters both inside and outside Burkina Faso.
Eight other defendants were sentenced to prison terms ranging from three to twenty years by the military tribunal that presided over the case, while three others were acquitted.
Sankara, a pan-Africanist politician who came to power in 1983, was assassinated together with 12 other government leaders at the age of 37. Compaoré took over as his successor and ruled until he was deposed in 2014.
The sentencing on Wednesday was a significant move in the case, which has been closely monitored by Sankara’s supporters both inside and outside Burkina Faso.
Sankara’s enormous socialist policies and speeches remained popular in West Africa even after his death 35 years ago. Some refer to him as the “African Che Guevara,” referring to the Marxist revolutionary and one of the Cuban Revolution’s symbols.
During his presidency, he also altered the old French colony’s name from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, which means “country of the upright.”
