In Ivory Coast, the former president of the National Assembly Guillaume Soro is “ safe », affirms on Saturday November 4, 2023 its Generations and Solidarity Peoples (GPS) movement. Friday, November 3, the GPS feared that Ivorian police officers would carry out “ kidnapping and extradition » from their leader.
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With our correspondent in Abidjan, François Hume-Ferkatadji
GPS published two press releases in less than 24 hours. The first to condemn the preparation of a “ illegal and arbitrary operation » which would have had as its objective the arrest, Friday November 3, of the former Ivorian Prime Minister at Istanbul airport at “11:35 a.m.” precisely, indicates the document.
A second press release published on Saturday morning indicates that Guillaume Soro is “ out of danger “, “ safe “, that he ” do well » after what is once again qualified as “ attempted kidnapping and extradition ”, without further detail. Real significant incident or communication exercise? The Ivorian authorities have not commented on the issue at this stage.
The former president of the National Assembly has been in exile since the end of 2019. He had announced his intention to run for the 2020 presidential election, but his candidacy was rejected due to a prison sentence. 20 years in prison for concealment of embezzlement of public funds. In June 2021, he was sentenced in absentia to life in prison in another case. Convictions that he judges “ policies » and unfounded. In May 2023the former ally of Alassane Ouatarra during the years of political crises in Côte d’Ivoire, had suggested that he could be a candidate in the 2025 election.
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