A military tribunal on Wednesday ruled that Burkina Faso\u2019s former president Blaise Compaore be sentenced to life imprisonment for complicity in the 1987 murder of his predecessor Thomas Sankara in a coup.<\/p>\n
The charismatic Marxist revolutionary Sankara was gunned down in the West African nation\u2019s capital Ouagadougou at the age of 37, four years after he took power in a previous putsch.<\/p>\n
Compaore was charged in absentia along with his former Head of Security, Hyacinthe Kafando, who was also sentenced to life imprisonment.<\/p>\n
Both have previously denied any involvement in Sankara\u2019s death along with 12 other defendants accused of involvement in the plot, three of whom were declared innocent on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe court finds Blaise Compaor\u00e9 and Hyacinthe Kafando guilty of attack on state security, complicity in murder and concealment of a corpse,\u201d the tribunal said in its ruling.<\/p>\n
Compaore went on to rule for 27 years before being ousted in another coup in 2014 and fleeing to Ivory Coast, where he is still believed to live.<\/p>\n
Fondly known as Africa\u2019s \u201cChe Guevara\u201d, Sankara took power on a promise to thwart corruption and post-colonial influences, denouncing foreign aid as a control mechanism.<\/p>\n
He rolled out mass vaccination against polio, banned female circumcision and polygamy, and was one of the first African leaders to publicly recognise the growing AIDS epidemic as a threat for the continent.<\/p>\n
A former fighter pilot, Sankara won public support in the impoverished nation by selling a government fleet of Mercedes, lowering the pay of well-off public servants and forbidding first class state travel.<\/p>\n
He cut his own salary, refused to work with air conditioning and jogged through Ouagadougou unaccompanied.<\/p>\n
Critics said his reforms curtailed freedoms and did little to enrich ordinary people. But admiration remains.<\/p>\n
Over the weekend, students gathered around white flowers marking the spot where Sankara was shot.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
NAN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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