The defense of four defendants sentenced to life for the jihadist attack in the seaside town of Grand-Bassam in Côte d’Ivoire, which killed 19 people in 2016, has decided to appeal this judgment, announced Monday at the AFP one of their lawyers.
“We are appealing the conviction of the four defendants who were present” during the trial, said this lawyer, Me Eric Saki. “Those who have been convicted in absentia have no possibility of appeal”he added.
The Assize Court of Abidjan sentenced on December 28 to the life sentence ten accused, including six in absentia, for their role in this first jihadist attack ever committed in Ivory CoastMarch 13, 2016. Eight accused, absent from the trial, had been acquitted.
All were accused “terrorist acts, assassination, attempted assassination, concealment of criminals, illegal possession of firearms and munitions of war and complicity in the said acts”.
Three young assailants had come up the beach from Grand Bassamvery frequented by foreigners, then stormed several restaurants, firing at the Kalashnikov on customers on the terrace before being shot dead by the Ivorian security forces.
Claimed by the branch ofAl-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqmi), this jihadist attack, the first to occur in Côte d’Ivoire, left 19 dead, including four French.
It had been perpetrated in retaliation for anti-jihadist operations On the edge et Barchan conducted by the France and its allies in the region of Sahel. It also targeted Côte d’Ivoire which had delivered members of AQIM to the Malian authorities.
New Ivoriansa Lebanese, a German, a Macedonian, a Maliana Nigerian and an unidentified person were also killed in the attack and 33 people of various nationalities injured.
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