Categories: NewsWorld News

Nigerien Court Jails Nine Soldiers For Coup Plot

President Paul Biya of Cameroon speaks as he meets with French former hostage at the presidential palace in Yaounde on April 19, 2013. A French family of seven who were kidnapped in Cameroon in February by an Islamist movement from neighbouring Nigeria arrived Friday at the French embassy in Yaounde after being freed overnight, an AFP correspondent saw. The hostages, whose release was confirmed by Yaounde and Paris, arrived under heavy police and army escort at the end of the morning. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius was on his way to the Cameroonian capital. AFP PHOTO / REINNIER KAZE

Nigerien court jailed nine soldiers for between five and 15 years on Friday for an attempted coup against President Mahamadou Issoufou in 2015, a court document showed.

In December 2015, the government said it had foiled a coup and arrested people planning to use aerial firepower to seize control of Niger, a largely desert West African nation, a major uranium producer and Western ally against Saharan jihadists.

In the judgment read out by Judge Ibrahim Daoudika, the suspected ringleader, General Salou Souleymane, got 15 years, as did two others. Six co-conspirators received sentences ranging from five to 10 years, and another three accused were acquitted.

Issoufou was elected in 2011, one year after a coup. He was re-elected in February 2016 with 92.5 percent of the vote, after the opposition coalition boycotted the polls.

“This is not what we expected, but the court is sovereign and it judged that they conspired against the state,” lawyer Nabara Ycouba told a news conference. “The law does not allow for an appeal. I will discuss with my clients what to do.”