Benin: Hugues Sossoukpè’s Legal Team Holds the Ivorian Government Responsible for the Extradition of a Refugee

In the statement, the legal team called “unacceptable” the argument put forward by the Ivorian government, which claimed it was unaware of Comlan Hugues Sossoukpè’s refugee status.

In their statement, the lawyers representing the founder of the newspaper Ololofofo explained that upon his arrival in Côte d’Ivoire, Mr. Sossoukpè presented an official travel document issued by the Togolese state.

According to them, this document clearly states his « refugee » status. It was handed over to Ivorian authorities as part of the arrangements for his stay and upon his reception », the lawyers stated.

Contrary to the lawyers’ statements, the Ivorian government’s spokesperson said, a few days after the journalist’s extradition, that his country was unaware that the founder of Ololofofo was a Beninese refugee in Togo.

« We would have needed to know that Hugues Comlan Sossoukpè was a refugee in Togo. As it happens, we have a cooperation agreement with a friendly and brotherly country, Benin. Under this judicial cooperation, we handed over Hugues Comlan Sossoukpè without knowing he was a refugee in Togo », Amadou Coulibaly, spokesperson for the Ivorian government, said at the time.

The Ivorian government spokesperson also pointed out that the Ministry of Digital Transition had invited forty-seven (47) journalists to its event. Amadou Coulibaly said the ministry did not go ” digging into the background of each of these journalists to find out who was a refugee and who was not”.

But the lawyers see the facts differently. They state that they reserve the right to take any appropriate action against the Ivorian state, whose responsibility they say is beyond doubt ».

As a reminder, Comlan Hugues Sossoukpè is being prosecuted by the Economic and Terrorism Offenses Repression Court on four alleged charges: incitement to rebellion, incitement to hatred and violence, harassment via electronic communication, and glorification of terrorism.