Ivory Coast: a former chief of protocol for Guillaume Soro sentenced to 5 years in prison

Souleymane Koné Kamaraté, also known as Soul To Soul, former protocol chief for Guillaume Soro, was sentenced to 5 years in prison on Tuesday, June 10, 2025, at the Abidjan-Plateau Court of First Instance. He is prosecuted for his involvement in the Marcory residence case and the post-electoral crises.

After several years of legal twists, Souleymane Koné Kamaraté, better known as Soul To Soul, was sentenced this Tuesday, June 10, 2025, to five years in prison, along with a fine of five million CFA francs and five years of deprivation of his civil and political rights.

The former close collaborator of Guillaume Soro, an emblematic figure of the Ivorian opposition, has nonetheless escaped immediate incarceration, as the sentence was not accompanied by a warrant for arrest.

The verdict was delivered in the framework of the Marcory residential case, an explosive file where Guillaume Soro, then President of the National Assembly, was accused of turning a residence into a nerve center for a “plot against the State.”

A Presidential Pardon

In 2024, the President of the Republic, Alassane Ouattara, granted a presidential pardon to 51 civilians and military personnel, including Soul To Soul, convicted for offenses committed during the post-electoral crises or for undermining state security.

This presidential decision comes in a context of an expressed intent to consolidate national peace, ahead of the 2025 presidential election.

It also concerns former top military officials, such as Dogbo Blé Brunot, Gnatoa Katet Paulin, and Kassé Kouamé Jean Baptiste, all involved in the post-electoral crises or prosecuted for undermining state security.

Soul To Soul, from Carceral Silence to Political Shadow

Initially sentenced in June 2021 to 20 years of firm imprisonment for conspiracy and attempted destabilization, Soul To Soul had seen his figure fade over the years. As protocol chief, trusted man, and close ally of Guillaume Soro, he embodied a faction of power that is now marginalized but still influential in some spheres of the opposition.

With this new sentence reduced to five years without a warrant for arrest, Soul To Soul’s fate symbolizes both the complexity of Ivorian reconciliation and the subtle pre-electoral political balances.