{"id":33940,"date":"2017-04-15T12:20:19","date_gmt":"2017-04-15T12:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/ivory-coast-conflict-gbagbo-ally-jailed-over\/"},"modified":"2017-04-15T12:20:16","modified_gmt":"2017-04-15T12:20:16","slug":"ivory-coast-conflict-gbagbo-ally-jailed-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/ivory-coast-conflict-gbagbo-ally-jailed-over\/","title":{"rendered":"Ivory Coast conflict: Gbagbo ally jailed over Novotel hotel murders"},"content":{"rendered":"

{The head of the presidential guard under Ivory Coast’s ex-leader Laurent Gbagbo has been sentenced to 18 years in prison over killings during the country’s civil conflict in 2011.}<\/p>\n

Gen Bruno Dogbo Ble was convicted at the murder trial for four foreign businessmen, who were abducted from a top hotel in the main city of Abidjan.<\/p>\n

Only one body was ever found, dumped in a lagoon in the city.<\/p>\n

Some 3,000 people died in the conflict that followed elections in 2010.<\/p>\n

The BBC’s Tamasin Ford in Abidjan says there are still many unanswered questions about the case which was long shrouded in doubt and mystery.<\/p>\n

A unit of the elite presidential guard was found to have stormed the Novotel Hotel in Abidjan’s financial district on 4 April, 2011, as fighting raged for control of the commercial capital.<\/p>\n

They abducted the French hotel manager along with the French head of Sifca, the country’s biggest agro-industrial group, his Beninoise assistant and a Malaysian colleague.<\/p>\n

The prosecution said that the victims were taken to the presidential palace, where they were tortured and killed.<\/p>\n

After a 10-month trial in Abidjan, five others were also jailed for their role in the killing, including the country’s former police chief.<\/p>\n

But it remains unclear why they were killed and on whose orders.<\/p>\n

Violence broke out when then President Gbagbo, now on trial at the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, refused to accept defeat to President Alassane Ouattara.<\/p>\n

President Ouattara has been criticised for only prosecuting his opponents following the country’s civil conflict, despite both sides being accused of atrocities.<\/p>\n

\"Gen<\/figure>\n

Source:BBC <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{The head of the presidential guard under Ivory Coast’s ex-leader Laurent Gbagbo has been sentenced to 18 years in prison over killings during the country’s civil conflict in 2011.} Gen Bruno Dogbo Ble was convicted at the murder trial for four foreign businessmen, who were abducted from a top hotel in the main city of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[160],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-33940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-theophile-niyitegeka"],"bylines":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"contributors":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33940\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33940"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=33940"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=33940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}