Former Minister of Defense Michèle Alliot-Marie will finally come to testify at the bombing trial that killed nine French soldiers in 2004 in Bouaké (Côte d'Ivoire), the president of the court announced on Tuesday April 6.
Read also: The strange trial of the bombing of Bouaké
Michèle Alliot-Marie is due to testify on April 13 before the Paris Assize Court.
Other ministers of the time, Jean-Pierre Raffarin (Prime Minister), Dominique de Villepin (Interior) and Michel Barnier (Foreign Affairs), are called to the bar on April 12 and 13.
Michèle Alliot-Marie had initially indicated to the courts that she would not come to the trial, considering that she had said everything about this case by testifying before an examining magistrate in 2010.
The trial takes place from March 29 until mid-April in Paris, in the absence of the three Belarusian and Ivorian defendants but with families of victims who hope to have "
finally answers
" in this still obscure affair, in particular from the ministers of the time.
On November 6, 2004, two hunters from the Ivorian loyalist army, which was trying to regain control of the north of the country from the rebels, bombed in Bouaké a military camp of the French peace forces responsible for buffering between the two camps.
This surprise attack killed 9 French soldiers and an American civilian, and left around 40 wounded.
The investigation failed to determine who gave the order to bomb the French and why.