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Ivory Coast has detained 13 members of the main opposition group on charges of conspiracy, their attorney said on Thursday, marking the latest wave of arrests leading up to the presidential election.
The detention of multiple government critics ahead of the October 25 elections, where President Alassane Ouattara is aiming for a fourth term, has heightened tensions in the West African nation.
The 13 members of the Democratic Party of the Ivory Coast (PDCI) — whose leader, Tidjane Thiam, was legally barred from contesting against Ouattara — were taken into custody on Tuesday, as stated by their lawyer and the party.
“They are accused of plotting against the authority of the state and causing breaches of the peace,” lawyer Sosthene Toure told AFP.
Toure said that the activists face accusations of “subversive actions” and helping to plan a march on October 4, which the government prohibited following its ban on protests against the exclusion of opposition candidates from the election. According to the lawyer, it seems one of the activists was mistakenly arrested.
A deputy from the PDCI confirmed that 13 individuals had been charged.
While the government asserts that the judiciary acted independently in disqualifying Thiam and other critics of Ouattara from the election, the opposition has consistently questioned the impartiality of the Ivorian judicial system.
Ouattara, who is 83 years old, will compete against former ministers Jean-Louis Billon and Ahoua Don Mello, along with former first lady Simone Ehivet Gbagbo and Henriette Lagou, who previously ran for president in 2015.
