The judiciary in Burkina Faso has indicted former Burkinabè President Blaise Compaoré in the 1987 assassination of his predecessor Thomas Sankara.
Compaoré was President between 1987 and 2014. He was tried in absentia in 2017 for authorising the killings of unarmed protesters in October 2014 after his attempt to to change the constitution and extend his 27-year-rule failed.
The case was referred to the military court in Ouagadougou, after the confirmation of charges against the main defendants, including Blaise Compaoré, 34 years after the death of Thomas Sankara –father of the Burkinabe Revolution.
His former right-hand man, Gilbert Diendere was prosecuted for complicity in assassination, concealment of corpses and attack on state security.
Diendere is currently serving a 20-year sentence in Burkina Faso for masterminding a plot in 2015 against the country’s transitional government.
The Ex-President was overthrown on October 31, 2014 by a popular uprising. He is set to go through the same legal system he overlooked through his 27-year rule.
Compaore, who has been living in exile in Cote d’Ivoire since his embarrassment, is charged with attack on state security, complicity in murder and concealment of corpses in the Sankara case.
A total of 14 people are due to appear in court in connection with the case.
The Sankara case, long considered a taboo subject in the country, was reopened in 2015 with the coming to power of Roch Marc Christian Kabore.
Considered a revolutionary leader, Thomas Sankara was assassinated on October 15, 1987 at the age of 38 by a group of soldiers.
From 1983 to 1987, he led his country, then known as Haute Volta, a name he changed to Burkina Faso in 1984.