A court in Burkina Faso has ruled a request by the slain Thomas Sankara’s family to exhume his body as legitimate, but said it would require more time to render a decision.

The judges at the civil tribunal in Ouagadougou said they will decide on the request on March 5 next year.

In their request, the family of the late revolutionary leader said they wanted to exhume the body in order to verify that it was really that of Sankara.

Lawyer for the family Bénéwendé Stanislas Sankara had submitted the request to the court several months ago after “reliably” learning that the grave in Ouagadougou where the popular leader is supposed to be buried did not contain his body.

That particular grave painted in national colours is located in the public cemetery of Dognoén, east of the capital, Ouagadougou.

Burkina Faso’s leading online publication, Fasozine, quoted lawyer Sankara as saying that a positive response from the court would enable the assassinated leader’s family to prepare a complaint for submission before international courts.

Rising tension

Bénéwendé Sankara explained that the decision to go to international courts was based on the grounds that local courts may not give a fair verdict.

The lawyer said the family wanted an international expert to help identify the body whenever the court granted the request.

Captain Thomas Sankara was assassinated during a military coup in 1987 along with several of his close allies whose bodies were reportedly buried in an unmarked mass grave.

President Blaise Comparé, who the Sankara family believes masterminded the assassination, was then serving as vice-chairman of the Military Council that was led by the slain leader.

The request to exhume the late Sankara’s body is taking place at a time when President Compaoré is facing spirited opposition from civil society and political opponents over his determination to run for a third term in 2015.

Meanwhile, the President has opted to skip the ongoing 22nd summit of the African Union in Addis Ababa amid swelling political tension at home where many of his ruling party colleagues have defected and formed a new political movement.