Benin: opponent Reckya Madougou sentenced to 20 years in prison

Published on : 12/11/2021 – 09:40

The Beninese opponent and former Minister of Justice Reckya Madougou was sentenced, Saturday, December 11, to 20 years in prison for terrorism before a special court in Porto-Novo, the capital of Benin, which had convicted four days earlier another opponent of 10 years in prison.

After more than 20 hours of hearing, Reckya Madougou, 47, was found guilty of “complicity in terrorist acts” by the Court for the repression of economic offenses and terrorism (Criet). The opponent, who had pleaded not guilty, was sentenced to the sentence required by the prosecutor.

Set up by the government in 2016, this special tribunal is accused by its detractors of serving as a legal instrument of power to muzzle the opposition.

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“This court has deliberately decided to pillory an innocent woman,” said Reckya Madougou, shortly before the announcement of her conviction, which she greeted with a slight smile. “I have never been and never will be a terrorist.”

The former minister, whose candidacy for the presidential election of April 11 had been rejected, was arrested a few weeks before the poll which saw President Patrice Talon reelected for a second term with more than 86% of the vote.

Charged and imprisoned in early March in Cotonou, the economic capital, the opponent is accused of having financed an operation aimed at assassinating political figures to prevent the holding of the poll and thus “destabilize” the country.

“This procedure is only a political coup”

“It’s sad for our justice. I maintain that there is no proof,” one of his lawyers, Mr.^e Robert Dossou.

“Judged at 6 am, without witnesses, without documents, without proof, Reckya Madougou sentenced to 20 years in prison by three henchmen of power. Her crime: to have embodied a democratic alternation in the regime of Patrice Talon”, reacted on Twitter another of his lawyers, M^e Antoine Vey.

The hearing, which took place in general calm, was marked from its opening on Friday by the indignation of Mr.^e Vey, who had blurted out at the bar: “This procedure is only a political coup. Even before his arrest, everything was orchestrated”.

In the process, the lawyer, arrived the day before from Paris, had requested the cancellation of the trial before leaving the room, without ever returning. He then denounced to AFP “a trial that has nothing judicial”.

The Beninese lawyers of Reckya Madougou did not leave the hearing which continued until the early hours of Saturday.

The government asserts that Criet is a completely independent body, judging impartially and ignoring political affiliations.

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However, it is almost no surprise that Reckya Madougou was sentenced, saying herself at the bar “not to be under any illusions” about the outcome of the trial. “I offer myself to the democracy of my country if my sacrifice can restore your independence to your court,” she said in the evening.

Less than a week before the presidential election, the judge of the Criet chamber of freedoms, Essowé Batamoussi, fled the country and denounced the pressure exerted by the authorities, in particular in the imprisonment of Reckya Madougou.

Benin’s authoritarian turn

Invested by the party “The Democrats” of the former President of the Republic Thomas Boni Yayi, enemy of President Talon, Reckya Madougou had run for the presidential election of 2021, denouncing in particular the absence of electoral pluralism.

As a sign of appeasement, Patrice Talon had received in September Thomas Boni Yayi – critic of the presidency and who calls for the release of political opponents – five years after their last meeting.

Tuesday, Criet sentenced the opponent Joël Aïvo to 10 years in prison, notably for “conspiracy against the authority of the State” and “money laundering”. The academic, in detention for eight months, was arrested the day after President Talon’s re-election.

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The same court had condemned in 2018 then in 2020 in absentia Sébastien Ajavon, an important opponent who came third in the previous presidential election, to 25 years in prison in total for drug trafficking and “forgery, use of forgery and fraud”. Like the majority of opposition figures in Benin, he now lives in exile.

Patrice Talon, an extremely wealthy businessman who made his fortune in cotton, elected for the first time in 2015, is accused of having committed Benin to an authoritarian turn in the name of “the development of his country”.

With AFP