Burkina Faso tribunal sentences ex-leader Compaore to life
By SAM MEDNICK
Associated Press
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — A Burkina Faso military tribunal has sentenced ex-President Blaise Compaore to life imprisonment for complicity in the murder of his predecessor Thomas Sankara in 1987 and for undermining state security. Compaore was tried in absentia as he has been in exile in Ivory Coast since he was toppled from power by a popular uprising in 2014. Compaore’s right-hand man Gilbert Diendere and former spy chief Tousma Yacinthe Kafando were also given life sentences. Diendere is already serving a prison sentence for an attempted coup in 2015 and Kafando is at large. Fourteen people were charged for Sankara’s killing in the trial, which began in October.
