A special court in Benin on Tuesday sentenced one of the country's opposition figures, Joel Aivo, to 10 years in prison after a treason trial critics dismissed as a politically-motivated sham. Several opposition leaders were detained before or just after an April election that saw President Patrice Talon win a second term with more than…
Several opposition leaders were detained before or just after an April election that saw President Patrice Talon win a second term with more than 86 percent of the vote. “It is not for criminal justice to arbitrate on political differences,” Aivo told the judge before he was sentenced. It was “a sham of a trial, to sideline him from politics,” Sosthene Armel Gbetchehou, a former student of the condemned opponent, told AFP.
He was tried at a special tribunal, the Economic Crime and Terrorism Court , in the West African country’s administrative capital, Porto-Novo.
Another politically motivated trial. The root cause of bad governance in Africa.