ABIDJAN: Ivory Coast authorities have detained a senior aide to opposition leader Laurent Gbagbo, accusing him of having called for an uprising ahead of last month’s presidential polls, the prosecutor said on Wednesday.
Damana Pickass was detained near Abidjan on Tuesday, prosecutor Oumar Braman Kone said in a statement.
Pickass is the chief coordinator of the Common Front, which groups the two main opposition parties headed by Gbagbo and former Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam.
Both Gbagbo and Thiam were barred from standing in October 25 presidential polls that saw 83-year-old President Alassane Outtara secure a fourth term in the world’s top cocoa producer.
The Front had called for demonstrations in the run-up to the election to denounce the exclusion of its candidates, despite the government banning rallies by parties not taking part in the vote.
Another protest is planned for Saturday.
Kone said that political figures including Pickass had “called for a popular uprising and the overthrow of the Republic’s institutions.”
Those calls “resulted in acts of violence that threatened national security,” he added.
Gbagbo’s party denounced the arrest as the “ongoing persecution of the opposition.”
Pickass was “being hunted down,” Sebastien Dano Djedje, executive president of the African People’s Party – Ivory Coast (PPA-CI), one of the two parties making up the Common Front, said on Wednesday.
The October 25 election was largely peaceful but did see some violence, in a country where presidential elections are often synonymous with political tensions.
At least 11 people died in demonstrations before the vote or in clashes on election day. The opposition claims a death toll of 27.
More than 100 people have been sentenced to three years in prison for participating in the demonstrations, according to their lawyers.
Ivory Coast detains senior opposition official
https://arab.news/y8jnp
Ivory Coast detains senior opposition official
- Damana Pickass is the chief coordinator of the Common Front
- The October 25 election was largely peaceful but did see some violence
Riot at Greek migrant detention center leaves 2 police injured, 30 migrants arrested
- The facility where the unrest erupted was holding about 750 migrants of various nationalities
- Arrivals from Libya to Crete have surged in recent months
THESSALONIKI, Greece: A riot broke out late Wednesday at a migrant detention center in northern Greece, leaving two police officers injured and 30 migrants arrested, authorities said.
The facility where the unrest erupted was holding about 750 migrants of various nationalities, police said. Two officers were treated for injuries after being hit by a rock and bitten on the hand.
Greece this summer introduced one of Europe’s toughest migration regimes, allowing detention for up to 24 months and imposing prison terms of two to five years for illegal entry or stay. Under the stricter laws, migrants denied asylum face mandatory jail sentences.
Wednesday’s clashes came a day after three migrants died and 55 were rescued near the southern island of Crete when a boat carrying them from Libya sank. Two of the rescued migrants, both from Sudan, were arrested on smuggling charges.
Arrivals from Libya to Crete have surged in recent months. But Migration Minister Thanos Plevris said earlier Wednesday that overall migrant arrivals had dropped compared with a year earlier.
He defended Greece’s tough migration laws and voiced support for proposals backed by other European Union members to establish dedicated deportation centers.
