About 35 years after, a military court in Burkina Faso on Wednesday handed down a life term to former President Blaise Compaore over the 1987 assassination of revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara, a development, which impact reverberated throughout many African countries for years to come.
Life terms were also handed to 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, while eight other accused were given jail terms ranging from three to 20 years, while three defendants were acquitted.
Compaore, who lives in exile in Ivory Coast after being toppled by public protests in 2014, and Kafando, who has been on the run since 2016, were tried in absentia in the six-month trial, which was punctuated by a coup d’etat in January.
With the verdict, the case, which has been avidly followed by many in the landlocked Sahel state, for whom Sankara’s assassination remains a dark blot on the country’s history, has finally been brought to a closure.
A fiery Marxist-Leninist who blasted the West for neo-colonialism and hypocrisy, Sankara was gunned down on October 15 1987, little more than four years after coming to power as an army captain aged just 33.
He and 12 colleagues were shot dead by a hit squad at a meeting of the ruling National Revolutionary Council, and even with the development, the death of the left-wing icon, appeared to have remained shrouded in mystery throughout the Compaore’s 27-year reign.
The court in the capital Ouagadougou found Compaore, Kafando and Diendere all guilty of harming state security, while the former President 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 a 30-year term against Compaore and Kafando and a 20-year term against Diendere, reports say, adding that applause broke out in the courtroom when the verdict was pronounced.
(First published by: Whirlwindnews.com.ng)
