Ivory Coast: the party of ex-president Gbagbo denounces arrests in its ranks
Justin Katinan Koné, in April 2021 [Illustration image].
AFP - SIA KAMBOU
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2 mins
The African Peoples' Party - Côte d'Ivoire (PPA-CI), the political party of the country's former president Laurent Gbagbo (2000-2011), denounced, on March 2, 2023, the arrest of 31 sympathizers and also the indictment of the general secretary of the PPA-CI, Damana Pickass.
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With our correspondent in Abidjan,
Bineta Diagne
In Côte d'Ivoire, the party of former President Laurent Gbagbo, the African Peoples' Party - Côte d'Ivoire (PPA-CI) denounced this March 2, 2023, during a press conference the arrest "
arbitrary
” of 31 sympathizers, “
intimidation and abusive arrests
” of members of the party leadership.
The PPA-CI paints a contrasting picture of the current context.
On the one hand, this pan-African opposition party is delighted to join the country's Independent Electoral Commission (CEI).
Its commissioner, Demba Traoré, was sworn in on March 1, 2023. For the party, this is a concrete act resulting from the conclusions of the political dialogue carried out last year.
► See also Laurent Gbagbo's PPA-CI joins the Electoral Commission, which now has 18 members
But on the other hand, Laurent Gbagbo's party says it is facing many difficulties.
In front of the press, Justin Koné Katinan, the spokesman of the PPA-CI, lists examples of aborted meetings due, in his words, to "obstructing the freedom of movement
of PPA-CI activists
".
Added to this, the indictment of the Secretary General of the party, Damana Pickass, suspected of being involved in the attack on a military camp in April 2021, and the arrest of 31 activists for acts relating to "
unrest to public order
”.
"
We strongly condemn the indictment for political purposes of the Secretary General of our party
," said Justin Koné Katinan.
We condemn with the same energy the arbitrary arrest and detention of the 31 party comrades and we demand their release.
We reject any attempt at clumsily orchestrated stigmatization by the government against us
.”
The 31 arrested are due to appear on March 7
Critics rejected by the presidential camp, which recalls that “
the instrumentalization of justice, it is not us, it was rather the regime of Laurent Gbagbo
[president of Côte d'Ivoire from 2000 to 2011, Editor's note]
.
Many of our activists were the subject of arbitrary procedures
," explains Mamadou Touré, deputy spokesperson for the Rally of Houphouëtists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP), quoted by Agence France Presse, "Our regime is, on the contrary,
trying to consolidate the rule of law where each citizen is free to exercise his freedom in accordance with the laws in force
”, assures this political leader.
According to their lawyer, the 31 people currently at the Abidjan remand center will appear on March 7, 2023 before the Abidjan flagrante delicto court.
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