The Court of Appeal of the Abidjan court confirmed on Monday the sentence of life imprisonment against Guillaume Soro, for attempting to undermine state security. She also confirmed the convictions for several of her relatives.
With our correspondent in Abidjan, Bineta Diagne
The Court of Appeal followed the requisitions of the prosecution by condemning nine of the defendants to 20 years in prison for “conspiracy” and “attempt to undermine state security”. Among them are Souleymane Kamaraté, known as Soul to Soul, who was Guillaume Soro’s protocol director, Commander Jean Baptiste Kouamé, the former head of the close guard of the former President of the National Assembly, as well as several military officials.
During the trial, justice accused them in particular of having concealed and tried to make weapons disappear, some time before the aborted return of Guillaume Soro to Côte d’Ivoire, in December 2019.
In addition, the Court of Appeal acquitted Alain Lobognon and Félicien Sékongo. The judges believe that they are not guilty of acts relating to disturbances to public order and the dissemination of false news. At first instance, they were sentenced to 17 months in prison. The challenge for them was to recover their civic rights, underline their lawyers. The civil parties had requested a larger compensation of 1 billion FCFA. They won their case, even if they deplore the acquittal of two of the defendants.
The defendants have fifteen days to appeal to the Court of Cassation.
► To read also: Ivory Coast: end of pleadings at the appeal trial of relatives of Guillaume Soro