Blaise Compaoré, former president of Burkina Faso, has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of and one-time friend and former President Thomas Sankara by a military tribunal. Sankara, 37 was brutally killed on October 15, 1987, by soldiers who gunned him down outside his office. The former president's sentence came on Wednesday 6th of April 2022 6 months after the trial of 14 accused in the assassination of Burkina Faso's revered Pan-African leader started.
In addition to Compaoré, the are two sentenced to life in prison. Hyacinthe Kafando is suspected of having led the commando that murdered Thomas Sankara and the commander of Compaoré's guard at the time of the events. As well as General Gilbert Diendéré, one of the army leaders in the 1987 putsch.
Blaise Compaoré is in exile in Ivory Coast since his fall whereas Hyacinth Kafando's whereabouts are unknown since 2016. The three men were convicted of an "attack on state security". Blaise Compaoré and Gilbert Diendéré were also found guilty of "complicity in murder" and Hyacinthe Kafando, suspected of having led the commando that killed Thomas Sankara, of "murder".
General Diendéré the only one still in Burkina Faso is already serving a 20-year prison sentence for his involvement in a 2015 coup attempt, a year after the fall of Blaise Compaoré following a popular uprising. They have fifteen (15) days to appeal these heavy sentences.
