In addition, Compaore has "immunity as a former head of state," they claimed.ĭespite these objections, the trial has been hailed by those who say Burkina Faso has long been burdened by silence and simmering anger that the killers have gone unpunished. The ex-president's lawyers on Friday lashed out at what they called a "political trial" taking place in an "exceptional jurisdiction" lying outside standard law.Ĭompaore, they said, had never received a summons to be questioned, nor had he received any formal accusation against him, except for the summons to attend the trial. Things changed in 2015 when the post-Compaore interim government started an investigation, and the following year prosecutors issued an international arrest warrant against him.
End to silenceĬompaore has long denied suspicions he organised the murder of his former comrade-in-arms - but throughout his long years in power, Sankara's death was always taboo. The pair face charges of complicity in murder, harming state security and complicity in the concealment of corpses.ĭiendere, 61, is already serving a 20-year sentence in Burkina Faso for masterminding a plot in 2015 against the transitional government that followed Compaore's ouster.Īnother prominent figure among the accused is Hyacinthe Kafando, a former chief warrant officer in Compaore's presidential guard, who is accused of leading the hit squad. Those accused include Compaore's former right-hand man - General Gilbert Diendere, a former head of the elite Presidential Security Regiment. They were mown down by a hit squad as they attended a meeting at the headquarters of the National Council of the Revolution in Ouagadougou.
Four years after Sankara took the helm, he and 12 other leaders were dead.
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