New day of hearing this Tuesday, April 16 at the Economic and Financial Penal Center of Abidjan, where, since December 22, 2023, a drug trafficking case has been tried. Yesterday, the prosecution requested ten years in prison for thirteen defendants and the release of a police official. Today it was the defense lawyers’ turn to plead.
1 min
With our correspondent in Abidjan, Bineta Diagne
For Me Zakaria Touré, Miguel Devesa must benefit from a “ mitigating excuse “. Presented as the mastermind of this affair, this Spaniard, throughout the trial, gave many details on how he brought in three tons of cocaine from Suriname until Ivory Coast.
“ He was cooperative with the justice system “, insists his counsel, who asks the court to apply the 2022 law on drug trafficking, because this law is, he says, “ softer » than that of 1988 on which the instruction is currently based.
For their part, the lawyers of another accused, Commissioner Dosso Karamoko, believe that there is no evidence in this file. They criticize the prosecution for relying mainly on the statements of a defendant: Miguel Devesa. “ Dosso Karamoko did not participate in any stage of this trafficking », underlines Me Guillaume Koffi. “ He neither imported, participated in nor sold narcotics », he continues. “ The prosecutor did not demonstrate that Dosso Karamoko’s client had knowledge of the activities of Miguel Devesa », he concludes, asking the court to release his client.
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