On the third day of the trial of Guillaume Soro and 19 of his relatives for “conspiracy” and “attempt to undermine state authority”, the court tried to understand why weapons were found in the lagoon in Assinie. During the hearing, Commander Jean-Baptiste Kassé Kouamé admitted that he had ordered his men on December 23, 2019 to destroy weapons stored at GPS’s political movement quarters and throw them into the water, fearing they would be stolen.
From our correspondent in Abidjan,
In the absence of the 11 other defendants – urged to leave the court to promote the “search for the truth” in the president’s words – three military personnel were called to the bar: Commander Kassé Kouamé, Lamine Traoré, a non-commissioned officer under his command, and Emmanuel Silué, a soldier and driver – all were at the time of the facts posted to the close protection of the former Prime Minister, Guillaume Soro.
At the beginning of the hearing, the president pointed to the seals presented to the rostrum, recovered from the lagoon at Assinie according to the forensic investigation – defunct Kalashnikovs, but also two rocket launchers and a sniper rifle – then addressed to the head of this close guard, Commander Kassé Kouamé. “Are these weapons of war or is it just for hunting chickens?” He asks askance.
The commander denies any connection to “heavy weapons”, but admits to having asked six of his men to “destroy” a stockpile of 30 Kalashnikovs, which he says belong to former soldiers of close protection, assigned to other posts after Soro’s resignation. from the post of President of the National Assembly.
“When we had to leave, I was afraid we could take these weapons,” he explains, describing a “hot” political climate on December 23, 2019. “We arrested people on the left and right, I did not know what to do. do, he recalls, acknowledging that he made “a mistake.”
►Read also: Côte d’Ivoire: Guillaume Soros’s lawyers condemn ‘scam’
Why have thrown these weapons in the lagoon near the residence Guillaume Soro “in a very narrow radius” and not in Abidjana, however, asked the president of the court several times. The questions remained unanswered while the other two accused soldiers confirmed that they had only been simple commanders.
.
