Burkina Faso ex-leader Compaoré to stand trial over Thomas Sankara’s murder

Blaise Compaoré, the exiled former president of Burkina Faso, is to be tried in absentia for the 1987 murder of Thomas Sankara. Sankara, who was not one of those African leaders to be told what to do by western nations, was murdered after four years in power in a coup led by his former friend Compaoré.

Compaoré succeeded him and ruled Burkina Faso for 27 years before being removed from power in a 2014 uprising following his decision to extend his tenure. He fled to Ivory Coast, where he has since been in exile. The ex-leader has denied involvement in Sankara’s murder.

On Tuesday, a military tribunal charged Compaoré with complicity in the assassination of his predecessor Sankara, undermining state security and receiving cadavers, according to a court document cited by Reuters. Compaoré’s former right-hand man and military general, Gilbert Diendere, was also charged with several crimes related to Sankara’s killing, including complicity in the murder, subornation of witnesses and concealment of corpses.

Diendere has been in prison in Burkina Faso serving a 20-year sentence after a failed coup in 2015 against the country’s transitional government. He was in court to hear the charges and will enter a plea later, CNN reported.

In 2015, Burkina Faso issued an arrest warrant for Compaoré, but Ivory Coast has refused to hand him over.

Sankara became president in 1983 after participating in a coup that removed Col. Saye Zerbo from the presidency and subduing Maj. Jean-Baptiste Ouedraogo, who was also struggling to take the nation’s top position. While president, Sankara quickly became known as Africa’s Che Guevara. In addition to implementing left-wing and anti-imperialist policies, he was a staunch opponent of corruption.

Sankara’s life was however cut short on October 15, 1987, when he was murdered along with 12 soldiers and buried in an unmarked grave by military men. He was only 37 years old.

During former President Compaore’s 27-year reign, he refused to allow Sankara’s body to be exhumed. However, after Compaore was forced to step down, Sankara’s body together with the other 12 slain soldiers was exhumed in late May 2015 to unravel the mystery surrounding their death. This was done after an investigation into the death of Sankara was opened in late March 2015.

According to Sankara’s family lawyer Ambroise Farama, the autopsy findings were “mind-boggling”.

“While the soldiers who were buried with him only sustained one or two gunshots, Sankara’s alleged body was riddled with bullets.”

“…As far as Thomas Sankara was concerned, there were more than a dozen bullet holes all over the body, even below the armpits,” Farama explained.

The results of the autopsy, which was done in France to confirm the identity of Sankara and the other soldiers, could not be corroborated as the DNA results were inconclusive thereby making it impossible to fully identify the victims. This compelled Sankara’s family to request for another DNA test on his supposed remains to which a judge ordered for it to be undertaken in Spain. The results of that were also inconclusive.

One can never overestimate the fact that Sankara was one of Africa’s greatest ever revolutionaries and thinkers. Though his time in power as President of Burkina Faso was senselessly cut short, his ideals and legacy will forever be etched in African political history.