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From: IRIN <IRIN-WA@irin.ci>
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Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2001 15:40:32 -0000
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Subject: COTE D'IVOIRE: General acquitted, another jailed in security tria
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COTE D'IVOIRE: General acquitted, another jailed in security trial

ABIDJAN, 14 March (IRIN)- One of the two Ivorian generals on trial for
threatening state security, Abdoulaye Coulibaly, was acquitted on Tuesday by
a military tribunal in Abidjan, state-owned television reported. 

The other, Lansana Palenfo, was found guilty and sentenced to one year
imprisonment, along with 10 other soldiers. They each received a 10-year
term. The court acquitted 10 others. 

The accused were implicated in an attempted assassination of General Robert
Guei, when he headed a 10-month military government in which Palenfo and
Coulibaly were leading members. However Palenfo was at the Sydney Olympic
Games on 17 September 2000, when soldiers stormed Guei's Abidjan home. 

Guei, who was forced out of office the following month in a popular
uprising, initially pressed charges against his erstwhile allies. Yet,
during the trial his lawyer asked that the charges be dropped because of
insufficient evidence that the generals plotted to kill Guei. Defence
witnesses told the court they were tortured into incriminating both men. 

Political analyst Constant Zeze told IRIN on Wednesday that the outcome of
the trial was "a victory for human rights" because the court accepted that
the defence witnesses were tortured into implicating the generals.

The president of the Ivorian Human Rights League (Ligue ivorienne de droits
de l'homme), Martin Bleou, told IRIN that the verdict could mark the 
"beginning of a lessening" of political tension that has gripped the country
since Guei's coup on 24 December 1999.

[ENDS]

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