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More opposition officials detained

    ABIDJAN

    Police have detained the local leadership of former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara’s party in the northern town of Korhogo, a party official told IRIN on Wednesday.

    According to the official, seven members of the opposition Rassemblement des Republicains (RDR) were arrested at 5 a.m. on Saturday following public order offences in the town on Friday. According to reports, cars were damaged and at least one building burnt in Korhogo by people protesting against the conviction of 16 RDR politicians.

    The seven have been detained under a special law which holds the organisers of demonstrations responsible for the violence that accompanies them.

    Under the same law, 11 national leaders of the RDR were sentenced to two years in jail on Friday, and five others given one-year prison terms, following an RDR protest in Abidjan that was accompanied by the destruction of buses and damage to the premises of a pro-government daily.

    According to the RDR official, the police were still searching for four other party members.

    Ouattara plans to challenge President Konan Bedie in next year’s election, but the state charges that the former prime minister is a national of Burkina Faso and thus ineligible. He is now in France and has postponed his return to Cote d’Ivoire on the advice of his party, news organisations reported on Tuesday.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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