Ex-Burkina Faso President Gets Life Sentence Over Sankara’s Murder

A military court in Burkina Faso, on Wednesday, sentenced Ex President Blaise Compaore to life imprisonment over the 1987 assassination of the revolutionary leader, Thomas Sankara.

Applause filled m the courtroom as the long-awaited verdict was read; bringing the curtain down on a case that had afflicted the nation for 34 years.

Compaore, who lived in exile in Ivory Coast after being toppled by public protests in 2014, was tried in absentia with Hyacinthe Kafando, an officer suspected of having led the hit squad, and General Gilbert Diendere, an army commander at the time of the assassination, which coincided with a coup that brought Compaore to power.

The court found Compaore, Kafando and Diendere guilty of harming state security.

Compaore and Diendere were also found guilty of complicity in murder, and Kafando of murder.

Their sentences exceeded the request of military prosecutors who had sought 30 years for Compaore and Kafando, and 20 years for Diendere, who was already serving a 20-year term over an attempted military coup in 2015.

The others accused were given jail terms ranging from three to 20 years, while three defendants were acquitted.

A Marxist-Leninist leader, Sankara, was shot dead on October 15, 1987, after four years of coming to power as a 33-year old army captain.

He, alongside 12 colleagues, were killed by a hit squad at a meeting of the ruling National Revolutionary Council.