Blaise Compaoré, 13 Others to Face Trial for 1987 Assassination of Thomas Sankara

Pat Stevens/

Former president of Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaoré, Gilbert Diendéré and 12 others are to go on trial for the assassination of his predecessor Capt. Thomas Sankara, 33 years ago.

Blaise Compaoré, in exile in Côte d’Ivoire, is to be prosecuted for “attack on state security, complicity in murder & concealment of corpses”.

His former head of security Hyacinthe Kafando will be tried for “attack on state security, assassination and forgery of public records”.

Gilbert Diendéré, already in prison for 20 years for his role in the attempted coup d’état of 2015, will appear for “witness tampering, complicity in the murder and attack on state security”.

Hamidou Jean Christophe Diébré, a military doctor, signed Sankara’s death certificate and will be prosecuted for “forgery of a public document”.

The rest are mainly soldiers accused of “levying an attack on state security” in respect of the circumstances around the assassination.

In 2015, the Council of Ministers authorised the exhumation Sankara’s body for an autopsy.

According to the results of the autopsy presented later on in 2015, Thomas Sankara’s body was “riddled with bullets”, so he couldn’t have died a natural death!

In 1997 the Sankara family petitioned the courts for the opening of an investigation of “murder and forgery of administrative documents”.

It took the fall of Blaise Compaoré in 2014 and the establishment of a transition program, to see any movement or action on the petition.

It was this movement and action on the family’s petition that led to the exhumation and autopsy.

The deaths of Sankara & his 12 companions 1987, were seen as great betrayal then because the major participants were all close friends and mates.

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