Nineteen people, including fourteen soldiers, were recently arrested in Côte d'Ivoire as part of the investigation into the presumed "attempted insurrection" of presidential candidate Guillaume Soro, the Ivorian justice announced on Tuesday .
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"At this stage of the investigation, the elements in our possession (...) enabled the arrest of 19 people including 14 soldiers (two senior officers and 12 non-commissioned officers) and five civilians," said the prosecutor of the Republic of Abidjan, Richard Adou, at a press conference.
"Fifteen of them were charged and placed under arrest warrant on April 17," he said, under the heads of "conspiracy or breach of state security, or complicity", in particular for "attempting to conceal weapons".
Ivorian justice has already condemned on April 28 the former Prime Minister Guillaume Soro to 20 years in prison for “concealment of embezzlement of public funds” and “money laundering” during the purchase of his residence in Abidjan in 2007 But the investigation into the "insurgency attempt" he allegedly fomented, is still ongoing.
50 AK-47 Kalashnikov rifles, 12 rocket launchers and 4 machine guns
In addition to the 19 people arrested in April, 19 of Mr. Soro's relatives, including five MPs, had been arrested in December and have been imprisoned for four months for complicity in one aspect of the case.
According to the prosecutor, the headquarters in Abidjan of Mr. Soro's party, Generations and Peoples in Solidarity, "was used for the storage of weapons", as well as "military communications equipment" for the alleged insurrection.
"The first searches had allowed" the seizure of "50 Kalashnikov AK-47 rifles, 12 rocket launchers and 4 machine guns", assured Mr. Adou.
Mr Soro, 47, who lives in exile, denies all the accusations concerning him and described his trial in absentia as "a travesty". He is a declared candidate in the presidential election scheduled for late October.
Long ally of Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara, whom he helped, as leader of the rebellion, to gain power during the post-electoral crisis of 2010-2011, Guillaume Soro became Prime Minister, then President of the Assembly before breaking up with the head of state in early 2019.
On April 22, the African Court of Human Rights ordered Côte d'Ivoire to suspend his arrest warrant against Mr. Soro and to release his 19 relatives. But the Ivory Coast had indicated the following day to continue the procedures in progress, estimating that the decisions of the Court undermined “the sovereignty of the State of Ivory Coast, the authority and the operation of (its) justice".
