A military court in Burkina Faso court has sentenced former President Blaise Compaoré to life imprisonment for the murder of his predecessor, Thomas Sankara.
The long-awaited verdict was delivered on Wednesday and Compaoré was sentenced in absentia.
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Thomas Sankara, who was the first Burkinabe president, was assassinated during a coup led by his friend and comrade-in-arms, Compaoré, on October 15, 1987.
Even though Sankara died 35 years ago, he remains one of the iconic figure in West Africa for his sweeping socialist reforms and speeches.
He is called the “African Che Guevara”, referring to the Marxist revolutionary and one of the icons of the Cuban Revolution.
He changed the name of the former French colony from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, which means “the land of the upright”.
However, two of Compaore’s former top associates, Hyacinthe Kafando and Gilbert Diendere, were also sentenced to life imprisonment.
Aljazeera reports that military prosecutors in Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou, had requested a 30-year sentence for Compaoré, who was being tried alongside 13 others.
After Compaoré was unseated following an uprising in 2014, he fled to neighbouring Ivory Coast where he was given citizenship.
The military tribunal that presided over the case handed jail terms ranging from three to 20 years to eight other suspects while acquitted three other defendants.
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