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Prosecutor: Ivory Coast Opposition Leaders Face Prison for Forming Rival Government


FILE - Former President Henri Konan Bedie speaks during his party's Parti Democratique de la Cote d'Ivoire (PDCI) meeting in Daoukro, Ivory Coast, Oct. 15, 2018.
FILE - Former President Henri Konan Bedie speaks during his party's Parti Democratique de la Cote d'Ivoire (PDCI) meeting in Daoukro, Ivory Coast, Oct. 15, 2018.

Opposition candidates in Ivory Coast's election face charges of terrorism and up to life in prison for denouncing the vote and creating a rival government after President Alassane Ouattara's victory, a public prosecutor said Friday.

The opposition boycotted the October 31 ballot after Ouattara decided to run for a third term in a country that has a two-term limit.

When results showed Ouattara won with 94% of the vote, former President Henri Konan Bedie and ex-Prime Minister Pascal Affi N'Guessan said they did not recognize the vote and announced a transition government.

Ouattara, in power since 2010, says approval of a new constitution in 2016 restarted his mandate and allowed him to run again.

FILE - Pascal Affi N'Guessan, leader of Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), speaks during a campaign rally in Gagnoa, Ivory Coast, Oct. 10, 2015.
FILE - Pascal Affi N'Guessan, leader of Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), speaks during a campaign rally in Gagnoa, Ivory Coast, Oct. 10, 2015.

The standoff has raised the risk of long-term instability in Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer and one of Africa's fastest-growing economies.

The creation of a breakaway government was "intended to attack the authority of the state," lead prosecutor Richard Adou told reporters.

Twenty people were arrested outside Bedie's house on Tuesday, when police in riot gear surrounded it. Nine were released, but the other 11, including Bedie's second in command, Maurice Kakou Guikahue, are having their cases heard, a defense lawyer and a spokesman for Bedie's PDCI party told Reuters.

"Several other people who took part in this operation and who managed to escape are being actively sought," prosecutor Adou said.

Affi is one of those sought by police, Adou said. Bedie remains under effective house arrest.

Bedie and Affi were not immediately reachable for comment.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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