Perpetuity.
This is the penalty received this Thursday in Paris by the three accused in the bombing trial of the French camp of Bouaké, attributed to the Ivorian army in November 2004 in Côte d'Ivoire, at the height of the Ivorian political crisis which had exploded in 2002. The country was then cut in two, divided between the rebel troops of Guillaume Soro, in the north, and the forces of the regular army, in the south, loyal to Laurent Gbagbo.
Three pilots, at the controls of the Sukhois of the Ivorian army who dropped a dozen rockets on the Descartes high school requisitioned by the French army, were tried during the trial in absentia by the Assize Court. The bombardment left 9 dead in the ranks of French soldiers and 38 wounded. But lawyers for the families of the victims question the troubled role of the French government in the case. Because France had succeeded in apprehending the incriminated mercenaries twice before releasing them.
