Former Burkinabè president in exile, Blaise Compaoré, will be tried from October 11 for the murder of Thomas Sankara, the man he overthrew in a coup in 1987, prosecutors announced on Tuesday. military.
Compaoré and 13 others have been indicted by a military court for the death of the cult figure, whom some have called the African Che Guevara.
Tuesday’s announcement came in a statement by prosecutors at the military court in the capital Ouagadougou. The debates, which will be held in public, will begin at 9:00 a.m. local time (and GMT), the statement added.
The file arrived at the city’s military prosecutor’s office in April.
Compaoré and 12 other people are accused of endangering state security, complicity in murder and complicity in concealing corpses.
Among the accused alongside Compaoré is General Gilbert Diendere, former right-hand man of Compaoré and former head of the elite of the Presidential Security Regiment (RSP) at the time of the coup.
Diendere is already serving a 20-year sentence in Burkina Faso for having instigated a plot in 2015 against the transitional government of this West African country.
He is said to have led the unit that killed Sankara.
Several other members of the presidential guard at the time will also join them on the dock.
But 34 years after the events in question, some of those initially charged have already died, according to lawyers for the plaintiffs in the case.
Sankara seized power in a coup in 1983, but was killed on October 15, 1987, when he was 37, in a coup led by Compaoré.
Compaoré himself was ousted in 2014 by a popular uprising after 27 years in power.
He has always denied ordering Sankara’s murder. But even mentioning the name of Sankara was taboo in Burkina Faso during his reign.
However, the case was reopened in 2015 with the installation of a transitional government and an arrest warrant was issued against Compaoré in March 2016.
Now aged 70, Compaoré currently lives in Côte d’Ivoire, where he fled after being ousted and where he has since acquired nationality. Unless he chooses to appear at trial, he will be tried in absentia.
(AFP)
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