In Ivory Coast, 26 activists of the party of former President Laurent Gbagbo, the Party of African Peoples-Ivory Coast (PPA-CI) were sentenced on the evening of Thursday, March 9, by the court of flagrante delicto to 24 months in prison for “disturbance of public order”.
A total of 27 defendants appeared before the examining magistrate on Thursday. The Ivorian justice system is accusing them of holding a rally in support of Damana Pickass, the secretary general of the opposition party PPA-CI, when he was summoned to appear before the investigating judge on 24 February. While Damana Pickass was summoned for his involvement in an attack on the military camp of the second battalion, located in Anokoua Kouté in the municipality of Abobo, which came under heavy fire from several heavily armed assailants, during the night of 20 to 21 April 2021, at around 1am
From the rostrum, the prosecutor clarified that the summons of Mr Pickass was “personal” and that it should not have led to a mob. Consequently, it declared that the defendants had been guilty of disturbing public order, even without violence. Of the 27 defendants, only one was finally acquitted, after declaring that he did not belong to the opposition party PPA-CI. The other 26 were sentenced to two years in prison.
“This is unacceptable. I have never seen anyone sentenced to prison without having committed a criminal offence. I would simply like to point out to you that the people who have been sentenced are all members of the PPA-CI. That is a fact, it is undeniable. The only person who was acquitted was a person who did not claim to be a member of the PPA-CI,” defence lawyer Sylvain Tapi told RFI, adding that he will appeal.
