The State of Benin has been condemned by the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) to pay 60 million euros of « economic and moral damage » to a Beninese businessman and opponent, Sébastien Ajavon , announced his lawyer Friday.
« The State of Benin has been sentenced to pay Sebastian Ajavon 60 million euros for its economic and moral damage, » told AFP lawyer, Julien Bensimhon.
He added that in its decision of Thursday taken in Zanzibar, the Court, which issued a communiqué on this file, gave « injunction » to Benin « to return to the Ajavon family its inheritance by lifting the seizures made on their bank accounts, their movable property, their real estate, their companies « .
The state of Benin had not reacted Friday to this decision.
In October 2016, Mr Ajavon was arrested after the discovery of approximately 18 kilos of pure cocaine worth an estimated 14 million euros in a container destined for one of his companies. He was released a few months later, for lack of evidence and « for the benefit of the doubt ».
But a special court in Benin later sentenced him to 20 years in prison and launched an international warrant against him, Ajavon having chosen exile in France following the case.
Presidential candidate of 2016, Sébastien Ajavon who made his fortune in the agribusiness, had arrived third and joined the current president Patrice Talon.
Relations between the two men, two billionaires who oppose each other in politics and business, had quickly deteriorated.
At the end of March 2018, Ajavon created his own party for the 2020 presidential election, the Liberal Social Union (USL).
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