The Criminal Court of Abidjan on Wednesday sentenced to life imprisonment four accused of the jihadist attack in the seaside town of Grand Bassam in Côte d’Ivoire, which killed 19 people in March 2016, including Europeans.
The court found the four accused present at the hearing “guilty of the charges against them and sentenced them to life imprisonment,” said Justice Charles Bini.
The court followed the indictment of Public Prosecutor Richard Adou, who had asked for life a week ago.
The four defendants present, Hantao Ag Mohamed Cissé, Sidi Mohamed Kounta, Mohamed Cissé and Hassan Barry, were accused of having been complicit in the attack by helping those considered to be his brains – absent from the trial – in particular in locating the premises, which they denied.
An international arrest warrant has been issued by the Court against Kounta Dallah, presented as the operative mastermind of the attack.
On 13 March 2016, three young assailants had climbed the beach of Grand-Bassam, frequented by foreigners, then stormed several restaurants, firing at the Kalashnikov on guests on the terrace before being shot dead by Ivorian security forces.
Claimed by the Al-Qaeda branch in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqmi), this jihadi attack, the first in Côte d’Ivoire, killed 19 people, including four French.
Nine Ivorians, a Lebanese, a German, a Macedonian, a Malian, a Nigerian and an unidentified person were also killed in the attack and 33 people of various nationalities were wounded.
Source: SenegalActu
