The Beninese opponent and former Minister of Justice Reckya Madougou was sentenced on Saturday to 20 years in prison for terrorism before a special court in Porto-Novo, the capital of Benin, which had sentenced four days earlier another opponent to 10 years in prison .
After more than 20 hours of hearing, Ms. Madougou, 47, was found guilty 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 required by the prosecutor.
Set up by the government in 2016, this special tribunal is accused by its detractors of serving as a legal instrument of power to muzzle the opposition.
“This court has deliberately decided to pillory an innocent woman,” Madougou said shortly before her conviction was announced. “I have never been and never will be a terrorist.”
“It’s sad for our justice. I maintain that there is no proof, ”one of his lawyers, Robert Dossou, told AFP.
The former minister, whose candidacy for the presidential election of April 11 had been rejected, was arrested a few weeks before the poll which saw President Patrice Talon reelected for a second term with more than 86% of the vote.
Charged and imprisoned in early March in Cotonou, the economic capital, the opponent is accused of having financed an operation aimed at assassinating political figures to prevent the holding of the poll and thus “destabilize” the country.
The hearing, which took place in peace, was marked from its opening on Friday by the indignation of one of his lawyers, Me Antoine Vey, who had let go at the bar: “This procedure is only ‘a political coup. Even before his arrest, everything was orchestrated ”.
In the process, the lawyer, arrived the day before from Paris, asked for the cancellation of the trial before leaving the room, without ever coming back. He then denounced to AFP “a trial that has nothing judicial.”
Tuesday, CRIET sentenced another opponent, Joël Aïvo, to 10 years in prison, notably for “conspiracy against the authority of the State” and “money laundering”. The academic in detention for eight months was arrested the day after President Talon’s re-election.
Patrice Talon, an extremely wealthy businessman who made his fortune in cotton, elected for the first time in 2015, is accused of having committed Benin to an authoritarian turn in the name of “the development of his country”.