Arrest ’Warrant’ For Compaore Over Sankara Killing – BBC

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Burkina Faso has issued an international arrest warrant for ousted leader Blaise Compaore for his suspected role in the 1987 killing of ex-President Thomas Sankara, an unnamed judicial source is quoted by AFP news agency as saying.

The source said that Mr Compaore, who is exiled in Ivory Coast, had been charged with the “attack” and “assassination”, it reports. Mr Compaore has always denied any involvement in the killing of Mr Sankara – a revolutionary figure who is still a hero to many people in Burkina Faso. Mr Sankara was was killed during a coup in 1987.

A police lab helping to investigate the killing of the iconic former president on Monday said it had not managed to detect any of his DNA in the remains presumed to be his, a family lawyer said, AFP reports. After Mr Sankara’s death, Mr Coompaore became president until a popular uprising last year forced him to flee Burkina Faso.