Cop jailed for killing journo
2004-01-23 14:00
Abidjan/Nairobi - A military court handed down a 17-year sentence to a policeman for killing a French journalist in Ivory Coast's capital, Abidjan, local media reported Friday.
Police Sergeant Theodore Seri Dago was found guilty of murder in the October 21 shooting death of Jean Helene, a correspondent for Radio France International, reported one of Abidjan's main newspapers, Fraternite Matin.
Helene, 50, was shot in the back of the head with an AK-47 as he waited to interview opposition figures jailed in Abidjan's police headquarters. At first, Dago claimed the gun had fired accidentally.
The court ordered fines of $1 000 from Dago and $275 000 dollars from the Ivorian government for Helene's family and employers.
'I am innocent'
"I am innocent. I am innocent," yelled Dago after being sentenced, the paper reported. His lawyers plan to appeal.
Helene's death came amid a climate of rising hostility in Ivory Coast, as hard-line supporters of embattled Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo accused France of aiding the rebels, who control the country's northern region.
France, Ivory Coast's former colonial power, brokered a peace agreement between the government and rebels last year, but Gbagbo has been reluctant to follow through on the accord.
Currently, there are about four thousand French troops enforcing a fragile ceasefire in Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer.
The country spiralled into civil war after a September 2002 coup attempt. Thousands were killed during the nine-month war, and the United Nations estimates that more than a million people have been displaced by the fighting. - Sapa-DPA
- SAPA