Ivory Coast Acting PM Sues Vice.com Over Drugs-Trafficking Claim

(Bloomberg) -- Ivory Coast’s acting prime minister, Hamed Bakayoko, said he’s suing the publishers and reporters of a series of Vice.com articles alleging he’s involved in cocaine trafficking.

Charges including defamation and endangering public order have been laid with the state prosecutor against Vice’s U.S., Belgian and French offices, as well as the authors of the report, according to a statement from his lawyer, Marie-Irene Niamkey, on Tuesday.

“These allegations go against my principles and are likely to bring my country into disrepute, because of the functions I exercise,” Bakayoko, who also serves as defense minister, said in a separate statement.

Emails to Vice’s press office, executive managing editor and five others weren’t immediately answered. Phone numbers aren’t available on its websites.

An ally of President Alassane Ouattara, Bakayoko is the acting prime minister in the absence of Amadou Gon Coulibaly, who has been receiving medical treatment for heart problems in France since the beginning of May.

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