Detentions

Military prosecutor Ange Kessy has denied that the detention of two generals accused of being involved in a September attack on the home of former Ivorian leader General Robert Guei was illegal.

Generals Lansana Palenfo and Abdoulaye Coulibaly had gone into hiding after Guei accused them of trying to kill him but emerged after popular protests forced Guei out of office in October. Shortly after that, they were detained by the authorities and have remained in detention.

Kessy denied, in an interview aired on Wednesday by the BBC, that the two men were being detained illegally. He said they had been denied bail by a court. “We have not committed anything illegal because the procedure followed with regard to their detention followed the rules of law,” he said.

Kessy also said that a number of persons accused of involvement in an attempted coup on 7-8 January were also involved in the September attack, ‘Le Jour’, an independent daily, reported on Wednesday. Twenty-seven military and civilian suspects detained in connection with the coup attempt, appeared before an Abidjan court on Tuesday