A military tribunal in Ivory Coast on
Thursday sentenced three senior military officials to life in prison for
the 2002 murder of former junta leader turned president Robert Guei,
and handed out lesser terms to others.The sentencing ends a three-week trial in
the Ivory Coast, the economic powerhouse of francophone West Africa,
which has been going through a reconciliation process after more than a...
decade of political turmoil.Guei was named head of state after a coup
d'etat in 1999 but lost an election to Laurent Gbagbo a year later. He
had been out of office for nearly two years when his bullet-riddled body
was discovered on a roadside in the commercial capital, Abidjan, during
a second attempted coup in 2002.The three high-ranking soldiers close to
Gbagbo who received life sentences were Dogbo Ble, commander of the
Republican Guard, gendarmerie Captain Anselme Seka Yapo and another
officer named as Sery Daleba.At least five others received 10 years in prison as accessories to the killing.Lawyers for the defendants said they would appeal the verdicts.Dogbo Ble is already serving 15 years in
prison for a 2012 conviction for complicity in violence including
murder. Yapo was given a 20-year sentence for murder and assault last
August.Although the 2002 coup attempt failed, the
non-commissioned officers behind it maintained their grip on the
northern half of the world's top cocoa grower, eventually becoming the
New Forces rebellion.The group helped bring to power the current
president, Alassane Ouattara, after Gbagbo refused to accept his defeat
in a 2010 run-off election, triggering a brief civil war.Gbagbo's trial before the International
Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity committed during the
conflict opened last month in The Hague.Source: Reuters
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