The historic trial for the murder of the father of the Burkina Faso revolution and anti-colonial leader Thomas Sankara began this Monday in a military court in Ouagadougou, almost 34 years after an assassination that went around the world and still remains unpunished.
The trial against the alleged murderers, long awaited by the families of the victims of the 1987 coup that brought his right-hand man, Blaise Compaoré, to power, is taking place under the watchful eye of the security forces in a country devastated by jihadist violence since 2015.
In the midst of great expectation, the process began in a specially equipped room in the residential neighborhood of the capital, Ouaga 2000. The Army and the Gendarmerie cordoned off the building.
The hearing was open to the public, who were carefully registered to access the room, with the prohibition to enter with telephones, bags, briefcases or hats, among other objects.
Two absent
The trial began with the absence of two of the fourteen defendants , who are held responsible for charges such as attack on state security, murder, falsification of public documents and concealment of bodies.
The former president of Burkina Faso Blaise Compaoré, in an image from 2012.
Those missing were Blaise Compaoré, president of Burkina Faso from Sankara’s death in October 1987 until October 2014, Hyacinthe Kafando, head of Compaoré’s security detail in 1987.The main defendant, Compaoré himself, 70, has lived since he was overthrown in the Ivory Coast.The former president always denied having ordered the murder of his comrade-in-arms and friend. According to the lawyer for the family of the man known as “African Che Guevara”, Compaoré’s absence “denotes in a certain way his possible guilt.”
Compaoré’s lawyers announced through a statement last Friday that neither they nor their client would attend because they consider that it is a “political trial” before a military court, that it is “an exceptional jurisdiction” and that their client enjoys “immunity as former head of state”.
The beginning of the trial was characterized by the difficulties in constituting the jury after the request to be removed from the judicial procedure by two generals appointed as advisers to the judge who presides over the court, one of them alleging health problems and the other for his relationship with some of the defendants.
The president of the court, Urbain Méda, had to suspend the hearing, and at that time the decision was made to authorize soldiers of lower rank than the accused (including generals) to act as military advisers and in which the judge and the parties proceeded to elect the military advisers and their alternates.
Hope of justice
After the process was resumed, it had to be suspended again shortly after in order to validate the timetable of the procedure and the defendants’ lawyers requested a month to read the 20,000-page trial dossier well and defend their clients.
Finally, the court decided that the next hearing will take place on October 25.
Bénéwendé Stanislas Sankara, one of the Sankara family’s lawyers, told EFE on Tuesday that it is “a historic trial” and that its opening is already a victory, but he warned that “it will not be a bed of roses” .
For her part, Mariam Sankara, the widow of the revolutionary leader Sankara, who arrived in Ouagadougou yesterday, since she lives in France, did not hide her emotion at the opening of the trial.
Speaking to EFE, the widow said she was “impressed because it is a moment that we have been waiting for a long time.”
“So we are here, waiting for the truth that we have always sought to know. It is important for all the families of the victims and the people of Burkina Faso, who are waiting for this moment (…). Today is the day of truth. We hope and we want this truth to be known,” he added.
Thomas Sankara, then president of Burkina Faso, in Ouagadougou in 1985, the 2nd anniversary of his seizure of power.
The crime
Sankara was 37 years old when he was assassinated on October 15, 1987 along with twelve of his colleagues after a coup commando led by Compaoré stormed his office.This charismatic leader, known as the African “Che Guevara”, had come to power in 1983 in a coup organized together with Compaoré, then his best friend and comrade in arms.The young president had launched a radical program of social and economic reforms.
Sankara stood out as a pan-Africanist and a revolutionary, inspired by figures such as the then president of Cuba, Fidel Castro, or the Cuban-nationalized Argentine guerrilla and politician Ernesto “Che” Guevara.
The investigation into the murder was blocked since Compaoré replaced Sankara as head of state after his death until October 2014, when he resigned and went into exile in neighboring Ivory Coast, after the civil unrest that broke out when he tried to modify the Constitution . to stay in power.The investigation had not prospered until now, despite the fact that the transitional government formed after the fall of Compaoré authorized the exhumation of the former president’s body to carry out DNA tests, which were inconclusive.
However, experts said that the body was shot several times, which is consistent with the testimony of several witnesses to the murder of Sankara and gave hope that the trial could take place.
