{"id":22027,"date":"2015-12-22T00:25:09","date_gmt":"2015-12-22T00:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/ex-president-wanted-over-killing-of-thomas\/"},"modified":"2015-12-22T00:24:26","modified_gmt":"2015-12-22T00:24:26","slug":"ex-president-wanted-over-killing-of-thomas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/ex-president-wanted-over-killing-of-thomas\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-president wanted over killing of Thomas Sankara"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Burkina Faso police seek arrest of former leader Compaore over infamous murder of Africa’s ‘Che Geuvara’ in 1987. }<\/p>\n

Burkina Faso has issued an international arrest warrant for ousted leader Blaise Compaore in connection with the murder of former President Thomas Sankara, news reports said on Monday.<\/p>\n

Sankara, a revolutionary figure who is still a hero to many in West Africa, was killed on October 15, 1987, during the coup that brought his friend and former comrade-in-arms Compaore to power. <\/p>\n

“I confirm that an international arrest warrant was issued against [ex-]President Blaise Compaore by the investigating judge,” Prosper Farama, a lawyer for Sankara’s family, told Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n

Compaore himself was driven from power last October by crowds opposing his bid to change the West African country’s constitution and extend his 27-year rule. He fled to neighbouring Ivory Coast, where he is now thought to be based.<\/p>\n

At least five other people, mostly former soldiers, have been charged in connection with Sankara’s killing – including General Gilbert Diendere, Compaore’s former chief-of-staff, who led a failed coup in September.<\/p>\n

Sankara took power in a coup in 1983 and pursued a philosophy of Marxism and pan-Africanism that led him to be called “Africa’s Che Guevara”.<\/p>\n

West Africa haunted<\/p>\n

Sankara’s murder is one of the most high-profile killings in Africa’s post-independence history and criminal charges could represent a breakthrough in a case that has haunted the West African country for decades.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile on Monday, a police lab helping to investigate Sankara’s killing said it could not find any “detectable DNA” in remains presumed to be his, another family lawyer said.<\/p>\n

Nearly three decades after his death, remains believed to be those of Sankara and 12 former aides were exhumed from a cemetery in the capital, Ouagadougou, in May.<\/p>\n

“There is no detectable DNA in accordance with the current state of science,” said Benewende Stanislas Sankara, one of the lawyers representing Sankara’s family and who is no relation.<\/p>\n

“We can simply say that in view of these results, the state of the remains did not permit the laboratory to certify the existence of DNA,” the lawyer said. <\/p>\n

A police lab in the southern French city of Marseilles performed the testing.<\/p>\n

Sankara’s death certificate stated the 37-year-old former army captain died of “natural causes”.<\/p>\n

According to autopsy results released in October, the leader’s supposed remains were “riddled with bullets”.<\/p>\n

Several reports have since suggested he was executed by a hit squad at government headquarters. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Source:Al Jazeera:[Ex-president wanted over killing of Thomas Sankara->http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2015\/12\/arrest-warrant-blaise-compaore-sankara-killing-151221171346675.html]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Burkina Faso police seek arrest of former leader Compaore over infamous murder of Africa’s ‘Che Geuvara’ in 1987. } Burkina Faso has issued an international arrest warrant for ousted leader Blaise Compaore in connection with the murder of former President Thomas Sankara, news reports said on Monday. Sankara, a revolutionary figure who is still a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000071010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-22027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":{"id":2000071010,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22027.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22027.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22027.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22027.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22027.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22027.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000071010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22027"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=22027"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=22027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}