Authors: Human Rights Without Frontiers
Site of publication: HRWF
Type of the publication:
Date of publication : September 2022
Introduction
After the instauration of democracy in 1991 with the election of Nicéphore Soglo as its first president, the sub-Saharan state of Benin went through a vibrant political life for about 25 years. In 2016, things started to change for the worse whenPresident Talon, a 63-year old cotton magnate, took office. The electoral commission, packed with President Talon’s allies, barred all opposition parties from the parliamentary election in 2019 for allegedly failing to follow the new rules closely enough.
There were huge protests to which security forces responded with live ammunition. Four people were killed and many more injured. Since coming to power, President Talon has jailed most of his rivals or forced them to take refuge abroad.
Massive arrests of protesters, political opponents and party leaders in 2021
From January to September 2021, approximately 200 non-violent individuals were reportedly arrested for politically motivated reasons, with most of them awaiting trial in preventative detention.
Several opposition leaders were sentenced to heavy prison terms on fabricated charges before or just after the April 2021 presidential election.
Their sham trials which were politically motivated were also the consequence of the lack of independence of the judiciary.
Reckya Madougou: arbitrary arrest, fabricated charges and sham trial
In December 2021, a court in Benin convicted and sentenced Reckya Madougou to 20 years in prison for allegedly financing terrorism.
There was no justice in her case,” Essowe Batamoussi, the judge who fled Benin in April 2021 and has applied for asylum in France, said in an interview. “The charges were ‘phony,’ ‘tragic’ and ‘entirely politically motivated.’
“Without witnesses, without documents, without evidence, Madam Reckya Madougou was sentenced to 20 years in prison by three government henchmen,” said one of her attorneys, Antoine Vey, in a statement. “Her crime: Embodying a democratic alternative to the regime…
Several opposition leaders were sentenced to heavy prison terms on fabricated charges before or just after the April 2021 presidential election
Joël Aivo
In December 2021, the controversial Economic Crime and Terrorism Court (CRIET) sentenced Joël Aivo to 10 years in prison for plotting against the state and laundering money.
It was “a sham of a trial, to sideline him from politics,” Sosthene Armel Gbetchehou, a former student of the condemned opponent, told Agence France Presse.
The fate of some other political opponents
Former Prime Minister Lionel Zinsou was the first runner- up in the 2016 election. He was handed a suspended 6-month jail term over alleged campaign breaches and was banned from campaigning for five years.
Sébastien Ajavon, a law professor having voiced his ambitions for the presidential role in the 2021 election, escaped to France after a court sentenced him to 20 years in prison on alleged drug charges.
The Judiciary and CRIET
President Talon has progressively taken control of the judiciary to suppress any dissent.
This special court has been responsible for numerous cases of judicial abuses for politically motivated purposes. After months of investigation, INTERPOL concluded that the Beninese government had abused the international police for political ends.
Detention conditions
According to the latest Report of the US State Department on Human Rights Practices in Benin (2021), there are harsh and life-threatening prison conditions in Benin. Prisons are overcrowded; detainees live in unsanitary conditions and do not have access to adequate medical care and food, according to the NGO Social Change Benin and the Benin Bar Association.
In 2021, the 11 detention facilities of Benin held approximately 9,000 inmates, significantly exceeding the normative capacity of 5,620 inmates.
Abuse of pretrial detention
According to the UN Committee, pre-trial detention seemed to be the rule rather than the exception, the UN Committee said. The Sub-Committee on Prevention of Torture had found some 40 children in Cotonou prison and among them several had spent a very long time in pre-trial detention, which was illegal.
The maximum length of pre-trial detention was five years for serious crimes and three years for misdemeanors, but in reality, for a significant proportion of detainees, time spent in pre-trial detention was longer than the sentences they received. In March 2019, 60 per cent of the 1,129 detainees in the Abomay prison were pre-trial detainees.
Freedom of assembly and police violence
Since President Talon took power, freedom to demonstrate has been dramatically curtailed.
According to the latest Report of the US State Department on Human Rights Practices in Benin (2021), there are harsh and life-threatening prison conditions in Benin. Prisons are overcrowded; detainees live in unsanitary conditions and do not have access to adequate medical care and food, according to the NGO Social Change Benin and the Benin Bar Association
However, Beninese citizens continue to resist the loss of their democratic rights through appeals to the courts, boycotts, and protests although they pay a high cost for it. At least 400 have been arrested and others have gone into exile.
Freedom of assembly and police violence
Protests following the 2021 presidential elections were met with live ammunition by ad hoc
army units, killing at least two people. President Talon praised the security forces’ response, denying that any demonstrators were killed, while dismissing the protestors as manipulated children.
The international community
Reporters Without Borders “In recent years, journalists’ freedom of expression has severely weakened in Benin. The media landscape is diversified, but is marked by the absence of viable major news organizations.”
Freedom House “Deadly police violence at political protests, arrests of activists, and other restrictions on civil liberties have become increasingly problematic in recent years.”
Magnitsky act and EU sanctions
Considering all the egregious violations of human rights by President Talon and his associates, Human Rights Without Frontiers in Brussels recommends their nomination for sanctions under the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime.