5 Gbagbo loyalists sentenced in Ivory Coast

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — Ivory Coast’s military tribunal on Thursday handed down the first verdict related to last year’s post-election conflict, finding five men guilty in the kidnapping and murder of a colonel who died at the height of the violence in March 2011.

The most high-profile suspect in the case – Gen. Bruno Dogbo Ble, the feared former head of ex-President Laurent Gbagbo’s Republican Guard – received a 15-year sentence, said Kady Fofana, communications chief for the tribunal. Four other men received sentences of five to 15 years, she said.