IVORYCOAST: OPPOSITION LEADERS JAILED FOR SPEAKING OUT AGAINST THE PRESIDENT

 A juge mocking a political opponent after he sentenced him to 6 months in prison for speaking out against president Allassane Ouattara.


IvoryCoast: A top leader of former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo's party was jailed for six months on Friday for disturbing public order, as his supporters denounced what they said was a political verdict.

Laurent Akoun, the number two in the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), had been arrested on Sunday.

His sentence was announced after a four-hour hearing during which prosecutor Allah Kouame had asked for a jail term of five years.

Kouame pointed to comments he said Akoun had made at a meeting of his supporters, which had been picked up in the press.

His accusations that President Alassane Ouattare had lied and his claim that the president had wanted to kill his political rival Gbagbo amounted to incitement to revolt and were a threat to public order, the prosecutor argued.

During the hearing, presiding judge Braman Kone had asked Akoun about any possible connection with his comments and a wave of deadly attacks against the army that started a few days later.

His questions provoked an uproar in the court, where many of Akoun's party colleagues were present.
"It's not by breaking and muzzling the opposition that you'll manage to solve the problems in this country," Akoun retorted.

Toussaint Zahui Dako, one of Akoun's lawyers, who had argued for the charges to be dismissed, said the defence would be appealing.

"It's a disappointment," he said of the jail term.

"It was clear throughout from the questions put by the prosecutor that it was a political verdict."

Ambroise Farama, another lawyer for Akoun, also denounced the sentence.

"Handing the secretary general such a sentence is a bid to decapitate the party," he said.

"It is not for the courts to take such a decision."

Akoun is the third key Gbagbo ally to be detained in recent days, after speaking out against President Alassane Ouattara's government.

Another close Gbagbo official, former minister Alphonse Douati, was arrested on August 18 and later

AFP ( French News Agency)