On October 15th, the 33rd anniversary of President Sankara’s assassination, we learnt with satisfaction that the examining magistrate in charge of the case in Burkina had issued commital for trial in the control division of the Military tribunal in Ouagadougou. It means that the case is in the process of being handed over to the Justice department in order to prepare the trial which should be held in 2021.
A dozen people, including Blaise Compaoré and Gilbert Diendré, are going to be tried with indictments ranging from high treason and complicity in high treason, to murder and complicity in murder, concealment of body, to to forgery of official papers and intimidation of witnesses. (https://www.sidwaya.info/blog/2020/10/15/thomas-sankara-le-juge-dinstruction-a-pratiquement-boucle-son-dossier/).
On the occasion of a question by a RFI journalist, we also learnt, ( https://www.sidwaya.info/blog/2020/10/15/dossier-thomas-sankara-il-y-aura-un-jugement-roch-marc-christian-kabore-president-du-faso) that until now the French autorities had still not delivered the third batch of archives, promised by France and that the plaintiffs are desapppointed.
In November 28th 2017, during his visit to Burkina, 3 years ago, President Emmanuel Macron, had pledged in front of an audience of students : « I have decided that all documents produced by French administrations during Sankara’s régime and after his murder, protected by the law on state secrets, be declassified and could be accessed to in response to burkinabè justice ».
Thus, as October 15th was approaching, various voices were raised to complain about the slow pace of justice, it seems that delays in the start of the trial would result from obstacles in France.
Our network strongly protest against this lack of action. We demand that the French government sends without further ado batch 3 of archives. We are already lobbying some MPs for them to call on the gouvernment to explain these delays and to urge it to make sure these documents are quicky send to Burkina Faso.
Furthermore we are concerned that the trial will take place in the absence of Blaise Compaoré. Consequently we are demanding to democratic forces in Ivory Coast to call for the government to extradite Blaise Campaoré.
Octover 19th 2020
Our network : Dakar, Niamey, Bamako, Ouagadougou, Bobo Dioulasso, Banfora, Barcelone, Turin, Bruxelles, Liège, Ottawa, Toronto, Las Palmas, Paris, Bagnolet, Ajaccio, Marseille, Nîmes, Montpellier, Carcassonne, Toulouse
international network justice for sanakra justice for africa
Contact : contactjusticepoursankara@gmail.com
