Former Ivorian head of state Laurent Gbagbo and his last prime minister, Gilbert Aké N’Gbo and two of his former ministers were sentenced on Thursday 18 January, 20 years of imprisonment “robbery” of the national agency of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) during the Ivorian post-election crisis.
Former President Laurent Gbagbo currently on trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague in the Netherlands, Gilbert Aké N’Gbo (former Prime Minister), Koné Katinan (former budget minister) and Désiré Dallo (Former Minister of Economy and Finance) were sentenced to 20 years in prison with a fine of about 592 million, according to the verdict handed down by Judge Sombé Méïté.
As a reminder, Mr. Gbagbo and his three former ministers were accused by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of “break and enter break-ins involving cellars at the BCEAO and cash; complicity in breaking into a break-in meeting; destruction of a facility owned by others; misappropriation of public funds “to obtain liquidity in the midst of the post-election crisis from December 2010 to April 2011.
The seven bailiffs who were prosecuted for “undermining state security, attacking or conspiring against the authority of the State, forming an armed gang, leading or participating in an armed gang, participating in an insurrectional movement, to public order, coalition of officials ” ecopent meanwhile 36 months of imprisonment.
These are the bailiffs Antoine Oulaï Crepin, Yacouba Keita, Edmond Amonh Loesse, Gnéplé Séri, Kouadio Brou, Andre Marie Te Beignand and Lucien Seka Monney who had drawn up reports of the report after this “robbery”.
Due to his absence throughout the trial, an arrest warrant was issued against Koné Katinan (former budget minister), absent from the country since the post-election crisis that ended in April 2011.