Burkina Faso suspended over Thomas Sankara assassination trial verdict

With our special correspondent and our correspondent in Ouagadougou, Gaelle Laleix and Yaya Boudani

It took several years of investigation, the hearing of more than 110 witnesses and 6 months of hearings to get to this day. Thirty-five years after the events, the material evidence is scant. No photos, no conclusive DNA tests, no wiretaps, but a few falsified death certificates.

The prosecution therefore relied mainly on testimonies, but there again, the fog of memories remains thick. If not for Elysée Yamba Ilboudo, then driver of Blaise Compaoré who remembers very well having led the men of the mortal commando to the Council of the agreement on October 17, 1984.

►To read again: Web documentary: who had Sankara killed?

” We left Blaise Compaoré’s home around 4 p.m. on the instructions of Hyacinthe Kafando “, he recalls. The commando then went to the building where Thomas Sankara and his collaborators were meeting. “ I saw Sankara put out his hands in the air and they shot him “says Elysée Yamba Ilboudo.

And then there is Abderrahmane Zetyenga, then chief warrant officer. This former deputy to General Gilbert Diendéré does not tremble during his confrontation with the former chief of staff of Blaise Compaoré and recalls each of the orders given by his superior. Finally, Colonel Moussa Diallo, a former gendarme, also remembers the “ lust for power by Blaise Compaoré and Gilbert Diendéré.

Diendéré denies the accusations

So many testimonies brushed aside by the general during his hearings. Standing, in uniform, from the top of his meter 90, Gilbert Diendéré never flinches at the bar, repeating with implacable logic the course of his day on October 17 and pleading not guilty.

To the question of why he did not retaliate or arrest the attackers who were nevertheless under his orders. ” I was alone, disarmed. The slightest false step and I would have become the fourteenth victim “, defended the former head of security of the Council of the agreement. Even if his version is challenged at the bar of the court by Chief Warrant Officer Major Abderrahmane and other witnesses during the confrontations.

► Read also: Sankara trial: the role of General Gilbert Diendéré at the center of the latest pleadings

For Colonel Major Moussa Diallo, former aide-de-camp to Thomas Sankara, “ the designer of this case is Blaise Compaoré, the supervisor of the coup is General Gilbert Diendéré and the performers are the elements of the guard of Blaise Compaoré “.

Gilbert Diendéré faces today a sentence of 20 years in prison. Former President Blaise Compaoré and Hyacinthe Kafando, both exiled in Côte d’Ivoire and tried in absentia, are facing a 30-year prison sentence.

Major issues

” This judgment must mark the end of impunity, explains a relative of a victim. He must also allow us to mourn “. 35 years after the events, the families have still not recovered the remains of their loved ones to offer them a burial.

But what is at stake in this judgment is also historical. It is first of all for the Burkinabè justice to show the world that it knew ” say the right “, as requested in its indictment by the military prosecutor’s office. In this respect, all the parties have agreed to make it an exemplary trial, even if it means suffering numerous suspensions.

► To read: Assassination of Thomas Sankara: challenges and limits of a historic trial

Finally, the issue is also political. Impossible under the reign of Blaise Compaoré, this legal procedure is one of the main achievements of the 2014 insurrection, which put an end to the regime of the former president. Defense lawyers have repeatedly denounced a political trial.

This procedure must in any case pave the way for others, in particular the trial of the presumed assassins of journalist Norbert Zongo, still suspended from the extradition of François Compaoré, the brother of the former president.