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Ouagadougou. – The trial of 14 men, including a former president,  began yesterday in Burkina Faso over the assassination of the country’s revered revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara 34 years ago.

Former President Blaise Compaore and 13 others face an array of charges in the death of Sankara, described by his followers as the African Che Guevara.

The killing of Sankara, an icon of pan-Africanism, has for years cast a dark shadow over the Sahel state.

Sankara and 12 others were riddled with bullets by a hit squad in October 1987 during a putsch that brought his friend and comrade-in-arms Compaore to power.

Compaore ruled the country for the next 27 years before being deposed by a popular uprising and fleeing to neighbouring Ivory Coast, which granted him citizenship.

He and his former right-hand man, General Gilbert Diendere, who once headed the elite Presidential Security Regiment, face charges of complicity in murder, harming state security and complicity in the concealment of corpses.

Compaore, who has always rejected allegations that he orchestrated the killing, will be tried in absentia by the military court in the capital, Ouagadougou.

Days before the trial opened yesterday, his lawyers announced he would not be attending a “political trial” flawed by irregularities, and insisted he enjoyed immunity as a former head of state. – Al Jazeera.