The much-anticipated trial on the killing of Thomas Sankara,Burkina Faso’s influential leftist leader murdered more than three decades ago, has been suspended as a result of the recent coup.
The trial will be delayed until the constitution is reconstituted, a lawyer for the prosecution said Monday.
The suspension comes one week after a military junta overthrew President Roch Marc Christian Kabore, suspended the constitution and dissolved the national assembly.
The president of the military tribunal said the trial would resume 24 hours after the constitution was established. On Monday, the junta released a seven-page document declaring junta leader, Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba, as president and detailing laws for the country. The trial might resume within a few days, according to Prosper Farama, the Sankara family lawyer.
Lauded as a major step for justice in the country, the trial began in Oct. in a military court in the capital, Ouagadougou. Closing arguments were expected to begin last week before mutinous soldiers seized control of the country.
Fourteen people are being charged for Sankara’s killing, including former President Blaise Compaore, who ousted Sankara in a 1987 coup. Compaore is charged with complicity, undermining state security and concealing corpses, according to military documents.