Burkina Faso’s ex-president, Blaise Compaore, has been sentenced to life in prison for the 1987 assassination of predecessor Thomas Sankara. The ruling is seen by many as a symbolic victory for a region that has been mired by instability in recent years.
The trial of Compaore and his co-defendants began last October — more than 34 years after Sankara’s death.
Of the 14 men prosecuted, three were acquitted while the others received sentences ranging from three years to life in prison.
The defendants were prosecuted on charges of attacking state security, the concealment of a corpse and complicity in murder.
Throughout the six-month trial, hundreds testified about the plot to take down Sankara and his team.
The late President Sankara spoke out frequently against Africa’s colonial powers and was considered a revolutionary pan-African icon.
He and a dozen others were gunned down in October 1987 at a meeting of the
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