An appeals court in Ivory Coast on Friday confirmed the life jail terms for four accomplices of a 2016 jihadist attack at Grand-Bassam.
The quartet’s lawyers said they would make a further appeal to the Court of Cassation after the verdicts were confirmed for aiding assailants in the March 13, 2016 massacre which left 19 dead, including four French nationals, at the resort outside the capital Abidjan in the country’s first jihadist attack.
Sidi Mohamed Kounta, Hantao Ag Mohamed Cisse, Mohamed Cisse and Hassan Barry were accused of sheltering the attack perpetrators and scoping out the site prior to a 45-minute bloodbath.
They were found guilty of “complicity in murder” as well as attempted murder and “terrorist acts.”
The judge, however, acquitted the four on charges of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition, at the behest of the prosecutor.
Kounta broke down in tears on hearing the verdict, insisting that “I am not a terrorist, I hate terrorists” as he was led away.
The attack saw three young assailants storm the beach at Grand-Bassam, a resort 40 kilometres (25 miles) east of Abidjan popular with foreigners, then fire on customers of several restaurants with assault rifles before Ivorian security forces shot them dead.
The four were initially found guilty along with six others in December 2022.
The others were found guilty in absentia, because they were either on the run along with presumed attack mastermind Kounta Dallah or detained in Mali.
“The facts of complicity in assassination and terrorist acts have not been proven… it has not been demonstrated that aid or assistance was provided” by the four, one of their defence lawyers, Tereme Diaby, told reporters in confirming a further appeal.
She insisted the accused had “no knowledge” of a “terrorist project.”
The 19 fatalities comprised nine Ivorians, four French citizens, a Lebanese, a German, a Macedonian, a Malian, a Nigerian and a person who could not be identified.
Thirty-three people of various nationalities were wounded.
Al-Qaeda’s North African affiliate, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), claimed responsibility the same day for the attack that it said was in response to anti-jihadist operations in the Sahel by France and its allies.
The group said it targeted Ivory Coast for having handed over AQIM operatives to Mali.
