Credit:  alchetron.com/    Guillaume Kigbafori Soro, former head of the rebellion in West African nation Ivory Coast, and Prime Minister

By Gary Raynaldo        DIPLOMATIC TIMES

Guillaume Soro,  the exiled former politician in West African nation Ivory Coast and presidential candidate who vowed  to  organize “the resistance”  to President Alassane Ouattara, was  sentenced to 20 years in jail on charges of embezzlement and money laundering.  An Ivory Coast court on Tuesday handed down the sentence to the former prime minister which included a fine of seven million euros. The Abidjan court  accused Soro purchasing a home in Ivory Coast with public money. In addition the court  ordered the confiscation of his Abidjan house and banned  him from civic duties for five years.  This effectively could spell the end to  Soro’s political future in Ivory Coast.  Soro was tried in absentia as he currently lives in Paris.  Soro  has steadfastly denied all of the  charges against him, saying the are “trumped up”  designed to keep him from participating in the country’s scheduled presidential elections in December 2020.  Soro has been  living in political exile in France  after the Republic of Ivory Coast issued an arrest warrant last December  for  Soro for  involvement in an alleged coup plot.  Soro vowed to organize active political resistance to President Ouattara.

 “It is only a question of political resistance,” Soro told French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche in December 2019   following accusations he was preparing an imminent “civilian military insurrection” to seize power. “I am and remain a presidential candidate… I will organise the resistance just as de Gaulle did from London,” he said, referring to the French wartime resistance leader.

Opposition Says Ivory Coast Arrest Warrant Is Politically Motivated To Silence Dissent

“These actions are attempts to silence all criticism by the opposition of the government when we should be discussing how the 2020 election is being organized,” politician GnonzieOuattara from the Coalition for Reconciliation, Democracy, and Peace (CRDP), an alliance of 21 opposition parties including Soro’s, told a news conference in December 2019, as reported by Reuters.  “Guillaume Soro is not guilty of anything,” he said.  Soro  denounced the investigation as politically motivated.

Soro rose to international prominence as the leader of the Forces Nouvelles rebellion against then President Gbagbo during Côte d’Ivoire’s civil war.  After the 2007 peace deal, Soro served as prime minister under the successive governments of Gbagbo and Ouattara between 2007 and 2012.  Soro served for several years as speaker of the National Assembly but apparently had a falling out with President Ouattara.

“I am still running for the presidency and I will win,” Soro proclaimed on  social networks, describing the trial as a “parody”.

Former United States Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Herman J. Cohen condemned  the court decision against  Soro as a “stupid action”.

Côte d'Ivoire presidential candidate Guillaume Soro has been sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison. This stupid action guarantees that Ouattara's designated successor, Amadou Gon Coulibaly, cannot possibly be elected.

— Herman J. Cohen (@CohenOnAfrica) April 28, 2020