The army in Central African Republic has freed two men, including the former security chief to President Francois Bozize, who were arrested three months ago on suspicion of plotting a coup, a lawyer said on Friday.
The president’s former aide, Colonel Danzoumi Yalo, known as Colonel Daz, and his brother Sani Yalo were picked up in December and accused of plotting against the government, though no formal charges were brought.
All proceedings against the pair were dropped when they were released from a military camp on Thursday, said one of their lawyers, Mathias Marouba.
”They were simply let out for lack of evidence and have been given total freedom of movement since 5.30pm [4.30pm GMT] yesterday [Thursday],” Marouba said, adding that a family member who had previously understood that Sani was under house arrest was incorrect.
”Sani Yalo has not been confined to his residence. It’s true that the idea was considered by the public prosecutor, but the release papers make no mention of house arrest for our client,” he explained.
The colonel was Bozize’s right-hand man when the former armed forces chief of staff led a rebellion that brought him to power on March 15 last year, ousting Felix-Ange Patasse. He then became the new president’s head of security.
Sani, a businessman, was implicated in 1999 under the Patasse regime in the Zongo-Oil affair, a tax and customs fraud scandal that cost the Central African Republic at least four billion CFA francs ($7,5-million) in lost revenue, according to judicial officials.
One of the lawyers for the two brothers on Wednesday said the two men had been detained for ”purely political” reasons and that ”there is really no charge against them”.
”It’s been proved that there is not sufficient evidence regarding either the supposed plot or the illegal possession of weapons of war,” he added.
The brothers were first arrested by gendarmes and then held by the intelligence service and political police under direct authority of the head of state, before being transferred early in January to the De Roux military base, which is the headquarters of the armed forces general staff.
On December 23, after the arrests, Bozize said that ”subversive meetings are still taking place”. He was addressing a gathering of local administrators in charge of Bangui districts during a meeting at the presidential palace.
”Parts of Bangui are reputed to be hotbeds for destabilisation movements,” Bozize added, citing the example of the Sara area, named for local people of the same Sara ethnic group as the ousted Patasse.
At the end of January, defence counsel for Sani said his client had been psychologically stressed and subjected to a mock execution, leading him to fear for his life.
When the Zongo-Oil scandal broke, Sani fled to Cameroon, where he was arrested, but he was released and returned to the Central African Republic after Bozize’s coup.
On coming to power, Bozize vowed to put an end to decades of misrule and corruption, winning widespread popular support in the desperately poor and landlocked nation.
Lawlessless still prevails, however, in parts of the country remote from the capital, Bangui, while there have been protests against the inability of the new national unity government to pay overdue wages any more easily than its predecessors. — Sapa-AFP