The former custody of the Rekya Madougou seals was sentenced on Saturday, twenty years in prison for terrorism four days after the conviction of the law professor Joël Aivo.
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In Benin, the trials of opponents are linked and the verdicts are heavy. Four days after the conviction of the law professor Joël Aïvo to ten years of detention, former Minister Reckya Madougou, whose candidacy for the presidential election of April 11 had also been rejected, was sentenced on Saturday 11 December to twenty years of Criminal imprisonment and 50 million CFA francs (76,200 euros) for a fine by the Court of Suppression of Economic Offenses and Terrorism (Criet) for “Complicity of Terrorist Acts”. Four other defendants judged in this case were sanctioned from the same sentence, another was acquitted.
“Mr. President, everyone will have understood that I am not a terrorist but that I remain a brave activist for twenty years, is involved in the citizen education of young people, the leadership and the Empowerment of women, “said Rekya Madougou, which comes as a fierce defense of democracy in his country.
The day before his trial, she had been extracted at the sunrise of the Akpro-Misterete House, on the outskirts of Porto-Novo, the capital of Benin, where she was detained for nine months. Conduct inside a prison administration van, it happened shortly after the court where t-shirt fans were expected to be effigy.
Woman of influence in Africa West
The hearing took place in a heated climate. In the middle of the morning Antoine Vey, one of the French lawyers of Reckya Madougou, left the courtroom. “The Criet is not an impartial and independent jurisdiction,” he carried away at an improvised press conference outside the court, denouncing the maintenance of the executive power over the judges. “The scenario of this trial is written in advance,” he concluded.
47 years old, twice minister in his country, Reckya Madougou is a woman of influence in West Africa. Between 2016 and 2020, it was the special advisor to the Togolese Head of State Faure Gnassingbé and oversee, as such, the establishment of an agricultural financing mechanism. It is said to be close to Senegalese Macky Sall.
Brilliant and determined, she has received numerous distinctions like the International Currency Women’s Award of the US State Department and the congratulations of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) for its efforts to empower women and young people. It launched in the presidential race at the beginning of the year, after being invested by the party “Democrats” of the former President of the Republic Thomas Boni Yayi (2006-2016), of which it was guarded. seals.
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