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One of the lawyers for four defendants sentenced to life imprisonment for the jihadist attack in the coastal town of Grand-Bassam, in the southeast of the Ivory Coast, announced Monday that they will appeal the sentence. Committed on March 13, 2016, this attack, the first of its kind on Ivorian soil, killed 19 people, including four Frenchmen.
Ten men were sentenced to life imprisonment in December for one of the most terrifying attacks on Ivorian society.
The defense of four defendants convicted of the jihadist attack in the coastal town of Grand-Bassam in the Ivory Coast that killed 19 people in 2016 has decided to appeal this sentence, one of their lawyers announced this Monday, January 9, to AFP. .
“We are appealing the conviction of the four defendants who were present” during the trial, said this lawyer, Me Éric Saki. “Those who have been sentenced in absentia have no possibility of appeal,” he added.
First jihadist attack on Ivorian soil
The Abidjan Criminal Court sentenced ten defendants to life imprisonment on December 28, including six in absentia, for their role in the first jihadist attack ever committed in the Ivory Coast, on March 13, 2016. Eight defendants , absent from the trial, had been acquitted.
They were all accused of “acts of terrorism, murder, attempted murder, concealment of criminals, illegal possession of firearms and ammunition of war, and complicity in said acts.”
Three young assailants went up to Grand-Bassam beach, popular with foreigners, then stormed several restaurants, firing Kalashnikovs at customers on a terrace before being shot dead by Ivorian security forces.
Four French among the victims
Claimed by the branch of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), this jihadist attack, the first to take place in the Ivory Coast, killed 19 people, including four Frenchmen.
It was carried out in retaliation for the anti-jihadist operations Serval and Barkhane carried out by France and its allies in the Sahel region. He also took aim at the Ivory Coast, which had handed over AQIM members to Malian authorities.
Nine Ivorians, one Lebanese, one German, one Macedonian, one Malian, one Nigerian and one unidentified person were also killed in the attack and 33 people of various nationalities were injured.
with AFP
