Prosecutor Col. Sita Sangare, Burkina Faso’s director of military justice, on Sunday announced [AP report] charges filed last week against General Gilbert Diendere for complicity in the assassination of former president and revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara in 1987. Diendere, the leader of the September attempted military coup in Burkina Faso, was the commander of the presidential guard in 1987. Blaise Compaore staged the 1987 coup that marked the start of his 27-year rule, but denies being a part of Sankara’s killing. Compaore resigned in October 2014 [BBC report] after a military takeover and protests against his plan to issue a constitutional amendment that would extend his 27-year term. The Sankara family lawyer said several others have been arrested and charged in relation to the assassination since the October autopsy revealed [Medafrica Times report] that Sankara’s body had been “riddled with bullets.”

Burkina Faso’s government has been the subject of intense upheaval for the past few years. Sangare said that he has charged 23 people [Reuters report] so far with charges ranging from murder and concealing the bodies of the dead to threatening state security and fraud in relation to the September coup where at least 11 people were killed and more than 250 injured. In October the interim government said that Diendere would face a military tribunal after he was apprehended for his role the week-long military coup and was later charged [JURIST reports] with crimes against humanity. In August Burkina Faso’s constitutional court rejected [JURIST report] a presidential candidate from Compaore’s Congress for Democracy and Progress Party, which marked the sixth time a candidate from that party had been rejected. In January Amnesty International urged the national government to investigate [JURIST report] excessive use of military force against anti-government protesters when Compaore exited from power.