After several years of investigation, and six months of hearing, the verdict of the trial of the alleged assassins of former Burkinabe president Thomas Sankara, killed in 1987, is expected on Wednesday April 6. 

This historic trial opened in October 2021, 34 years after the death of Sankara, a pan-African icon, assassinated in a coup that brought Blaise Compaoré, the main accused, to power.

The latter, in exile in Abidjan since his fall in 2014, did not attend the hearings.

His lawyers denounced "a political trial" before "a special jurisdiction", believing that the procedure "is worth nothing".

Thirty years in prison were required against him by the prosecution of the Ouagadougou military court for "attack on state security", "concealment of a corpse" and "complicity in assassination".

Thomas Sankara, the young president of Burkina Faso, was assassinated in 1987, four years after the coup that brought him to power.

© France 24

Fourteen defendants

Blaise Compaoré is suspected of being the sponsor of the assassination of his former comrade in arms and friend who came to power by a putsch in 1983, which he has always denied.

The same sentence was required against Hyacinthe Kafando, former commander of Blaise Compaoré's guard, another major absentee from this trial, on the run since 2016 and accused of "assassination".

In addition to these two notable absentees, twelve other defendants attended this river trial, including General Gilbert Diendéré, one of the army leaders during the 1987 putsch, for whom the military prosecutor's office demanded twenty years in prison for the same charges as Blaise Compaoré, plus "tampering with witnesses".

General Diendéré is already serving a 20-year sentence for an attempted coup in 2015. 

Like most of the defendants present, he pleaded not guilty and the lawyers for the Sankara family regretted that none had confessed or repented.

"Nobody! We are asking the court to bring justice to the families. We don't want revenge, we are just asking for justice," said one of them, Prosper Farama.

A trial disrupted by the January 24 coup

The trial was disrupted by the January 24 coup by Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, which overthrew elected President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré.

It was first suspended the day after the putsch, then on January 31, "until the restoration of the Constitution" put to sleep during the coup, then restored by the junta in power, allowing its resumption.

But new interruptions occurred, including one following the swearing in of Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba before the Constitutional Council on February 16.

The defense then introduced a request emphasizing that convictions were being sought for "attacks on state security", whereas the putsch by Lieutenant-Colonel Damiba, validated by the Constitutional Council, constituted in itself a " attack on state security".

This "consecrates the seizure of power by force as a constitutional mode of devolution of power", had argued the defense lawyers.

An "unfounded" argument rejected by the Constitutional Council, allowing the resumption of the trial.

Came to power by a coup in 1983, Thomas Sankara was killed with twelve of his companions by a commando during a meeting at the headquarters of the National Council of the Revolution (CNR) in Ouagadougou.

He was 37 years old.

The death of Thomas Sankara, who wanted to "decolonize mentalities" and upset the world order by defending the poor and the oppressed, was a taboo subject during the 27 years in power of Blaise Compaoré, forced to leave after an insurrection popular in 2014.

With AFP

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