Burkina Orders Compaore To Pay Damages Over Sankara Killings
Former President Blaise Compaore
A court in Burkina Faso on Tuesday ordered ex-president Blaise Compaore and nine others to pay more than a million dollars in damages to relatives of revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara and aides who were assassinated in 1987.
The order comes after a trial last month that sentenced the group to long jail terms, ending a case that afflicted the Sahel state for 34 years.
A former comrade-in-arms of Sankara, Compaore took power during a putsch on the day of the assassination, ruling until 2014, when he was toppled by mass protests and fled abroad.
Judge Urbain Meda, presiding over a military court in the capital Ouagadougou, ordered payment of 807.5 million CFA francs $1.3 million to relatives of the 12 people who were gunned down alongside ...