Life sentence for Burkinabe ex-leader Compaoré for Sankara murder
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A Ouagadougou court has sentenced former Burkinabe President Blaise Compaoré to life imprisonment for the murder of his predecessor, the revered Thomas Sankara. The long-awaited verdict brings to close a six-month trial about the murder of Sankara who was assassinated on October 15, 1987. Military prosecutors had requested a 30-year sentence for Compaoré, who was being tried alongside 13 others. Compaoré now lives in Ivory Coast and refused to take part in the trial. Sankara, a revered pan-Africanist leader, was murdered alongside 12 others by a hit squad during a putsch that brought his friend and comrade-in-arms Compaoré to power. Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque reports. #BurkinaFaso