Ivory Coast Ex-Youth Leader Sentenced to 20 Years in Jail

(Bloomberg) -- An Ivory Coast court convicted Charles Ble Goude, a former cabinet minister and youth leader, on murder, rape and torture charges and sentenced him to 20 years in jail.

The charges relate to Ble Goude’s role in a crisis triggered by Laurent Gbagbo’s refusal to concede defeat in a 2010 election against incumbent President Alassane Ouattara. The five-month standoff left at least 3,000 people, mostly Gbagbo opponents, missing or dead.

Ble Goude was cleared of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in The Hague in January this year, but prosecutors are appealing that decision and he has to remain in the Netherlands until the case is concluded.

Ble Goude was the leader of the pro-Gbagbo militant group Young Patriots and served as the former president’s youth minister. He told Agence France Presse he was surprised by the verdict of the Ivorian court, which also ruled that he be deprived of his civil rights for 10 years and be fined 200 million CFA Francs ($342,000) which will be paid to the victims.

“This verdict comes ten months ahead of the presidential elections,”’Patrice Saraka, secretary general of Ble Goude’s Pan-African Congress of Young Patriots party, told reporters in Abidjan on Tuesday. “It shows that the power in Abidjan isn’t committed to holding a calm and peaceful vote, on the contrary this risks creating a tense pre-election atmosphere.”

Ivory Coast is the world’s top cocoa producer.

--With assistance from Katarina Hoije.

To contact the reporter on this story: Leanne de Bassompierre in Abidjan at ldebassompie@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andre Janse van Vuuren at ajansevanvuu@bloomberg.net, Mike Cohen, Rene Vollgraaff

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