In power for twenty-seven and exiled in Ivory Coast since his fall in 2014, Blaise Compaore was found guilty of having ordered the murder of his predecessor, killed in a coup d'état in 1987.
The former president of Burkina Faso, Mr. Compaoré, was sentenced to life imprisonment for his participation in the assassination of his predecessor Thomas Sankara, who was killed with twelve of his comrades in a coup in 1987. Thomas Sankara, who came to power in a coup in 1983, was killed with twelve of his companions by a commando during a meeting at the National Council of the Revolution (CNR) headquarters in Ouagadougou. He was 37 years old.
The Ouagadougou Military Court also sentenced his guard commander Hyacinthe Kafando and General Gilbert Diendéré, one of the army leaders during the 1987 coup, to life in prison.
The death of Thomas Sankara, who wanted to "decolonize mentalities" and disrupt the world order by standing up for the poor and oppressed, has been a taboo subject during Mr. Compaoré's twenty-seven years in power, forced to leave following a popular uprising in 2014. Compaoré, in exile since 2014 in Côte d'Ivoire, and Hyacinthe Kafando, on the run since 2016, were absent from the trial. General Dienderé was, therefore, the main defendant present at the trial.
Begun in late October, the hearings of this historic trial for Burkina Faso have been suspended several times, notably during the January 24 coup d'état during which Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba overthrew President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré.
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