Trial put on hold until constitutional order restored in country, tribunal says
KIGALI, Rwanda
A military tribunal in Burkina Faso announced Monday that it has suspended the trial over the 1987 assassination of revolutionary leader and former President Thomas Sankara because of a recent coup.
The move came days after the military junta that deposed President Roch Marc Christian Kabore suspended the constitution and dissolved the National Assembly.
The tribunal said the trial would resume 24 hours after the constitution is restored.
Prosper Farama, one of the lawyers for the Sankara family, said the suspension was in everyone’s interest because there is no constitutional order in the country.
A hearing of the closing arguments had been scheduled to begin last week before soldiers led by Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba seized power.
The trial of 14 people accused of plotting Sankara’s assassination began last October at a military court in the capital Ouagadougou, coming 34 years after his murder.
Sankara assumed power in 1983. He was killed on Oct. 15, 1987 at the age of 37 during a coup led by former President Blaise Compaore, a former ally and main defendant in the case.
