Guillaume Soro, former speaker of the Ivorian National Assembly, was sentenced on Wednesday to life imprisonment for “undermining state security”, the Ivorian National Television (RTI) announced.
Mr. Soro’s lawyer, Affoussy Bamba, who is also in exile, was sentenced to 20 years in prison, the same number of years (20) also for his director of protocol, while Alain Lobognon was sentenced to 17 months in prison and the political movement Génération des Peuples Solidaires (GPS) was dissolved, according to the verdict.
Soro, who is also a former prime minister, is accused by the Ivorian authorities of having fomented an insurrection against the institutions of the state.
“The judicial system of Côte d’Ivoire has just taken the grim responsibility of pronouncing judgement against my companions, my brothers, some members of my security and myself, sentences ranging from life to 17 months in prison,” Soro said in a statement issued after the verdict.
“I totally reject these iniquitous verdicts, pronounced outside all the rules of law and dictated solely by political considerations,” he wrote, because for him, “it is not hidden to anyone that the ultimate goal of this trial is to put a stop to the political project that I am carrying and to remove me permanently from the political game in Côte d’Ivoire.
The former rebel leader maintained that this trial will have demonstrated, once again, the compromise of the Ivorian judiciary and its voluntary submission to the dictates of the Executive.
“These verdicts reinforce my conviction that it is necessary to fight courageously and without weakness against the capture of the Ivorian state and the placing under tutelage of all its institutions,” promising that he “will not give up the fight”. (PANA/NAN)
