Opposition politicians jailed for two years

Leading members of the opposition Rassemblement des Republicains (RDR) received prison terms of up to two years on Friday after being convicted under a law that holds the organisers of demonstrations responsible for violence that accompanies them. An Abidjan court sentenced RDR Secretary-General Henriette Diabate and 10 other senior members of the party to two years in prison and a fine of 300,000 CFA francs (about US $500) each. Five others received one-year prison terms. Their lawyers said they would appeal against the convictions. Another four accused were released. The 20 (19 RDR politicians and a journalist with a newspaper close to the party) were arrested on 27 October following an RDR protest that was accompanied by the destruction of buses and damage to the premises of a pro-government newspaper. They were charged under a vandalism law that holds the organisers of a protest responsible if it turns violent. The sentences came less than a month after a court ruled that documents produced as evidence that RDR leader Alassane Dramane Ouattara is an Ivoirian were invalid. Ouattara, who was prime minister of Cote d’Ivoire from 1990 to 1993, is the RDR’s candidate for presidential elections to be held late next year. However, the government contends that he is ineligible because he does not satisfy a constitutional requirement that presidential candidates must be Ivoirian citizens of Ivoirian parentage.