Burkina Faso's former president Blaise Compaore has returned to his home country despite his military court sentence to life imprisonment for complicity in the 1987 murder of his predecessor Thomas Sankara in a coup.
Compaore was found guilty of an attack on state security, complicity in murder and concealment of a corpse, the tribunal said in its ruling.
He went on to rule for 27 years before being ousted in another coup in 2014 and fleeing to Ivory Coast.
Burkina Faso has been battling Islamist militants active in northern regions, some with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State, since 2015.
The fighting has displaced more than 1.85 million in the West African country alone and killed thousands across the Sahel, where militant activity that took root in Mali has spread over the past decade.
Army officers angry about the escalating attacks overthrew Burkina Faso's president in January and vowed to improve security, but levels of violence have remained high.
Armed men killed at least 100 civilians in another rural district in northern Burkina Faso last month, the deadliest attack the country has seen in at least a year.