The Beninese opponent and former Minister of Justice Reckya Madougou, 47, was sentenced on December 11 to 20 years in prison for “terrorism” before a special tribunal in Porto-Novo, the political capital of Benin. She was convicted of “complicity in terrorist acts” by the Court for the repression of economic offenses and terrorism (Criet). The opponent, who had pleaded not guilty, was sentenced to the sentence requested by the prosecutor. Indicted and imprisoned in early March, she is accused of having financed an operation to assassinate political figures to prevent the holding of the presidential election last April and thus “destabilize” the country. In July, his lawyers seized the United Nations working group on arbitrary detention to denounce his conditions of detention “inhuman” and ask that he address “an urgent appeal to the State of Benin to proceed to his immediate release”.
Invested by the party “The Democrats” of former Beninese President Thomas Boni Yayi, now an enemy of President Talon, Reckya Madougou was a candidate for the 2021 presidential election, denouncing in particular the lack of electoral pluralism. As a sign of appeasement, Patrice Talon, an extremely wealthy businessman who made his fortune in cotton and elected for the first time in 2015, had received in September Thomas Boni Yayi – a former ally who became a critic of the presidency and who calls for the release of opponents. politicians – five years after their last meeting. The former minister, whose candidacy for the presidential election of April 11 was finally rejected, was arrested a few weeks before the poll which saw President Patrice Talon win a second term with more than 86% of the vote.
Installed by the government in 2016, Criet is accused by its detractors of serving to muzzle the opposition, for the benefit of President Talon, engaged in an authoritarian turn in the name of “development of his country”, according to the opposition. For its part, the government affirms that Criet is a completely independent body, judging impartially and ignoring political affiliations. However, less than a week before the presidential election in April, the judge of the Criet chamber of freedoms, Essowé Batamoussi, had fled the country and denounced the pressure exerted by the authorities, in particular for the imprisonment of Reckya. Madougou.
“This court has deliberately decided to pillory an innocent”, said the latter, shortly before the announcement of her conviction, which she greeted with a slight smile. “I have never been and I will never be a terrorist”. “It is sad for our justice. I maintain that there is no proof”, for his part told AFP one of his lawyers, Me Robert Dossou. “Judged at 6:00 am, without witnesses, without documents, without proof, Reckya Madougou sentenced to 20 years in prison by three henchmen of power. Her crime: to have embodied a democratic alternation in the regime of Patrice Talon”, reacted on Twitter another of his lawyers, Me Antoine Vey.
A few days earlier, on Tuesday, December 7, Criet had condemned the opponent Joël Aïvo to 10 years in prison, in particular for “conspiracy against state authority” and “money laundering”. The academic, in detention for eight months, was arrested the day after President Talon’s re-election. The same court had condemned in 2018, then in 2020, in absentia Sébastien Ajavon – important opponent who came third in the previous presidential election – to 25 years in prison in total for drug trafficking and “forgery, use of forgery and fraud”. Like the majority of opposition figures in Benin, he now lives in exile.