Burkina Faso tribunal sentences ex-leader to life

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — A Burkina Faso military tribunal has sentenced ex-President Blaise Compaore to life imprisonment for complicity in the murder of his predecessor, Thomas Sankara, in 1987 and for undermining state security.

Compaore was tried in absentia, as he has been in exile in Ivory Coast since he was toppled from power by a popular uprising in 2014.

Compaore’s right- hand man, Gilbert Diendere, and former spy chief Tousma Yacinthe Kafando were also given life sentences. Diendere is already serving a prison sentence for an attempted coup in 2015, and Kafando is at large.

Fourteen people were charged for Sankara’s killing in the trial, which began in October. Eight other people were found guilty of a range of charges including giving false testimonies and complicity in undermining state security. Three were found not guilty, including the doctor accused of forging Sankara’s death certificate to say he died of natural causes.

There were gasps in the courtroom when the verdict of life imprisonment for Compaore was announced, with Sankara’s supporters shaking hands, pumping fists in the air and chanting.

Seated near the front, Sankara’s widow, Mariam Sankara, told The Associated Press that justice had been served.

“The judges have done their jobs and I am satisfied. Of course, I wished the main suspects would be here before the judges,” she said. “It is not good that people kill other people and stop the process of development of a country without being punished.”

The long- awaited trial, nearly 35 years after Sankara and 12 other people were killed, was hailed by many rights activists as a major step for justice in Burkina Faso.

Sankara, a Marxist leader with a reputation as ‘Africa’s Che Guevara,’ has had a lasting impact on the country, changing its name from the French colonial Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, which means “land of honest men” in the local Moore and Dioula languages.

Sankara came to power in 1983 at the age of 33 after he and Compaore led a leftist coup that overthrew a moderate military faction. But in 1987 Compaore turned on his former friend in a coup in which he seized power and then ruled the country for 27 years before being ousted in an uprising.

While the verdict will help address the scars left by Sankara’s death, his assassination remains a highly sensitive topic in the country. Of the three people sentenced to life in prison only Diendere is likely to serve any time, said Alexandre Raymakers, senior Africa analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, a risk consultancy.

“Compaore remains in exile in the Ivory Coast and is unlikely to be extradited, while Kafando remains at large,” he said.

Even though it’s unlikely Compaore will go to prison, many people in Burkina Faso felt his conviction was a victory.

“All the plotters of assassinating Thomas Sankara are condemned, and this is historical for all Burkinabe,” said Stanislas Damiba, who attended the trial.

But for some in Sankara’s family, the verdict is not enough.

“It’s a relief, it’s not a satisfaction, it will never be a satisfaction,” Paul Sankara, the younger brother, told reporters. “If you put what has been done on October 15, [1987] and the verdict, it cannot cover what’s happened. They have been murdered, assassinated, so we will have that inside of us as a family.”

The defense has 15 days to appeal the sentence.