OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso: Fourteen men, including a former president, will go on trial in Burkina Faso from Monday over the assassination in 1987 of Thomas Sankara, the country's revolutionary leader and a pan-Africanist icon. It will be nearly 34 years to the day since Sankara was gunned down during a putsch led by an erstwhile comrade and close friend — one of the most shocking episodes in a country well-versed in political brutality. Suspicions have long been directed at Sankara's successor as president, Blaise Compaore, who ruled the impoverished Sahel state for the next 27 years. Compaore was toppled by a popular uprising in 2014 and fled to neighboring Ivory Coast, which granted him citizenship. The 70-year-old, who has always denied any part in Sankara's brutal death, will be tried in absentia. On Friday, he announced through his lawyers that he would not attend the trial.
