COTE D’IVOIRE: Tortured at the Police Headquarter, five of the 41 Ivorians extradited from Liberia have lost their life

COTE D’IVOIRE: Tortured at the Police Headquarter, five of the 41 Ivorians extradited from Liberia have lost their life

juillet 8, 2012

The government wants to hold them as ordinary detainees. The news is not good from the side of the 41 Ivorians extradited from Liberia. According to our source, five (5) of them have died since Monday, July 2, 2012. The victims died from torture which they were inflicted during their forced journey back home. The forty-one (41) Ivorians supposed to have been part of Laurent Gbagbo’s militia men were extradited, handcuffed, in Abidjan. Once at home, all the pro-government media held them responsible, without any evidence, of the attacks in the west part of the country that have killed seven UN peacekeeping from Niger.

The ivorian government, in its desire to harm their moral and physical integrity, has kept them at the police headquarters, at Plateau, without legal assistance. Exposed to any kind of tortures and humiliations. “Indeed, five of 41 Ivorians extradited from Liberia have just died,” says a source close to the matter. This confirms the critiques that say that the regime sinks into a tyranny, a reality that it wants to hide from the Ivorians. “We have been informed that the dead peoples will be transferred to prison (MACA) to make them victims of prison, which is ridiculous. They are well and truly dead in the premises of the police headquarters, “says our source.

Since the extradition from Liberia took place, M. Ouattara’s government is still struggling to find the evidences of the suspects effective involvement in an attempt to destabilize the ivorian regime. Even though for now, the charges against them are related to their “active involvement in the post-election crisis.”

The latest information says that twenty of these 41 Ivorians were transferred to MACA (prison) where they join ten others that were transferred there a little earlier. Again, another disastrous act of Ouattara’s government which sees everywhere and every day some kind of threats of destabilization. Ouattara’s camp is getting more and more nervous. And the hunting for President Laurent Gbagbo’s political and military supporters is still ongoing and even intensifies. “The regime is desperate and wants to endorse false accusations to the suspects. Thus, they are beaten every day “our source says. To verify those facts, we went to the police headquarter. But we were denied access to the place. And all our other attempts to contact the police commissioner or a member of his/her staff able to enlighten us were unsuccessful. We were told either that “the boss is in meeting” or “the boss is not in.”

Toussaint N’Gotta

 Source: Ivorian daily newspaper “LE TEMPS”  6 July 2012