An opposition leader in Benin Republic, Reckya Madougou was on Saturday to 20 years in prison for terrorism by a special court in the capital Porto-Novo after a brief trial which her lawyers condemned as a ‘political attack’.
Africa Today News, New York gathered that Madougou was found guilty of ‘complicity in terrorist acts’ after more than 20 hours of hearings, by the Economic Crime and Terrorism Court, or Criet, which had on Tuesday sentenced another key opposition figure to 10 years behind bars.
Critics have continued to insist the court, which was set up in 2016, has been used by President Patrice Talon’s regime to crack down on the opposition and pushed Benin into authoritarianism.
‘This court has deliberately decided to penalise an innocent person,’ Madougou said shortly before her prison sentence was announced.
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‘I have never been and I will never be a terrorist,’ the 47-year-old former justice minister added.
‘It’s a sad day for our justice system, I maintain that there is no proof,’ one of her lawyers, Robert Dossou, told reporters.
Madougou was one of several Benin opposition leaders banned from running in an election in April in which Talon won a second term with 86 percent of the vote.
She was arrested in the economic capital Cotonou in March — just weeks before the election — accused of financing an operation to assassinate political figures to prevent the vote, in an alleged bid to ‘destabilise’ the country.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK