Abidjan ( Ivory Coast ):"Outrageous false conviction stories and show trials"
Political dissidents are arrested and tried with a veneer of legality where false criminal charges, manufactured evidence, and unfair trials are used to disguise the fact that the defendants are political prisoners. Opposition sympathizers are arrested ,charged with a crime even though they are innocent, and are given the choice, to confess and implicate the opposition leaders in order to get lower sentences.
Dr. Assoa Adou, along with two other prominent opposition figures, Lida Kouassi and Dogo Raphael were arrested in the past two months. According to sources close to the interior ministry, their arrests were linked to a confession of a suspect arrested in the town of Tabou, presented as the mastermind of the attacks against forces loyal to President Ouattara. The latter , according to the government, confessed he contacted these opposition leaders to destabilize Ouattara's regime, charges they vehemently denied.
Ouattara's regime often carries out these political motivated arrests and torture in order to intimidate the opposition. There is a sense in Ivory Coast that since Ouattara’s bloody seizure of power, license has been given to his interior ministry and army to silence any political dissent.
Raymond Koffi, an Abidjan resident , says it well when he added "I think it would be better if all the accused were to be set free. They are political prisoners, they have to be released so that peace can return."
Ouattara's regime often carries out these political motivated arrests and torture in order to intimidate the opposition. There is a sense in Ivory Coast that since Ouattara’s bloody seizure of power, license has been given to his interior ministry and army to silence any political dissent.
Raymond Koffi, an Abidjan resident , says it well when he added "I think it would be better if all the accused were to be set free. They are political prisoners, they have to be released so that peace can return."
Some political defendants are finally getting a trial after three years in custody. Most of these political prisoners were indicted on charges involving armed actions, crimes against humanity.
"Those who testified against the defendants are not able to say what they did because they had not witnessed the acts that these accused would have posed. They are not witnesses because they unanimously saw nothing. For such an important trial, the government should not have manufactured witnesses" said Dadje Rodrigue, Counselor for the political prisoners.
Raymond Koffi, an Abidjan resident , added "I think it would be better if all the accused were to be set free. They are political prisoners, they have to be released so that peace can return."
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