In Burkina, the trial of the assassination of Sankara resumes after two weeks of suspension

The trial of the alleged assassins of the “revolutionary” president of Burkina Faso, Thomas Sankara, killed on October 15, 1987 during a coup, resumed in Ouagadougou on Monday October 25, after two weeks of suspension, a journalist noted. from AFP. Opened on October 11 in front of a military court thirty-four years after the facts, it had been suspended at the request of defense lawyers assigned to it who wanted more time to be able to study “The 20,000 documents in the file”.

The first day of resumption, mainly devoted to procedural matters, also made it possible to establish the list of the sixty witnesses that the court wants to hear – by videoconference for those who live abroad. Among these witnesses are the former French Minister of Foreign Affairs Roland Dumas, as well as Jack Lang, former Minister of Culture. The court would also like to hear Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, son of President François Mitterrand, who was adviser for African affairs to his father at the time of the facts.

“There are former ministers of France, former diplomats, said Mamadou Coulibaly, a defense lawyer. We put their name, but their address is still being researched. This means that some probably do not know that they have to testify. “

At the opening of the trial, the international network “Justice for Thomas Sankara, justice for Africa” ​​underlined the risk that it does not address the role played by France, the United States and West African countries. like the Ivory Coast of Félix Houphouët-Boigny and Togo of Gnassingbé Eyadema, then upset by the anti-imperialist positions of this young revolutionary adored by African youth.

Thomas Sankara’s widow, Mariam, who came from France (where she usually resides) to attend the trial, signed a petition demanding that he be filmed “For history”. This request was rejected on the day the trial opened by the military court.

For Compaoré’s lawyers, “a sham trial”

Twelve of the fourteen accused were present Monday when the trial resumed, including General Gilbert Diendéré, 61, one of the main army chiefs during the 1987 putsch. The main accused, former President Blaise Compaoré, brought to power by this putsch, was absent when the trial resumed, just as he was when it opened. His lawyers denounced “A sham trial” before “An exceptional tribunal”.

Blaise Compaoré, ousted from power in 2014 by the street and who has since lived in Ivory Coast, a country from which he obtained his nationality, is accused of “complicity in assassinations”, “concealment of corpses” and “security attack of State “. The same accusations hang over General Diendéré, who is already serving a twenty-year prison sentence in Burkina Faso for an attempted coup in 2015.

Among the accused are also soldiers of the presidential guard of Mr. Compaoré. One of them, the former adjutant Hyacinthe Kafando, suspected of being the leader of the commando that had assassinated Thomas Sankara, is on the run.

The trial, which is to last two to four months, continues Tuesday with the interrogation of one of the accused, Ilboudo Yamba Elisée, a soldier presented as one of those who shot Thomas Sankara and his twelve companions who were also murdered.