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Suspects wanted to kill Gbagbo, prosecutors say

Suspected mercenaries arrested in France told investigators they were plotting to assassinate Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo, Paris prosecutors said on Wednesday.

However, the leading suspect, Ibrahim Coulibaly, a former army sergeant who led a 1999 coup, denies the charge, his lawyer said as his client was placed under investigation -- a step short of being charged.

French counterintelligence agents arrested 10 people over the weekend, saying they were implicated in an alleged plot to destabilize Ivory Coast. An 11th was detained Wednesday morning for questioning, judicial officials said.

Six of the suspects are French citizens, four Ivoirians and the remaining suspect -- presented as the financier of the group -- is Lebanese, judicial officials said.

During detention, several of the suspects told investigators they were headed for the Ivory Coast capital of Abidjan with the intention of assassinating Gbagbo, prosecutors said Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The suspects informed French investigators of details of their plot, prosecutors said without elaborating.

Meanwhile, authorities in Ivory Coast, a former French colony, detained 30 people for questioning in connection with the alleged plot, among them civilians, paramilitary officers and soldiers, military officials there said.

Ivory Coast, which suffered a nine-month civil war that officially ended last month, has been rattled in the past week by persistent talk of new uprisings, prompting authorities to increase the number of armed soldiers patrolling the streets of the commercial capital, Abidjan.

After the arrests, Gbagbo thanked France for thwarting what he claimed was a coup plot and an attempt on his life.

France's top anti-terrorism judge, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, placed Coulibaly under investigation for "recruiting mercenaries with the intention of physically eliminating Mr. Gbagbo" and "criminal association in relation to a terrorist enterprise," judicial officials said.

The charge of recruiting mercenaries can bring seven years in prison, while the terrorism-related charge carries a maximum 10-year sentence.

Coulibaly's attorney, Sorin Margulis, said his client maintains that he "does not know" the people claiming that an assassination plot was in the works.

"He didn't recruit them," the lawyer said of his client.

Coulibaly led the 1999 coup, but turned power over to General Robert Guei rather than taking over himself, officials said. Living in exile in Burkina Faso since 2000, Coulibaly had recently announced his intention in the French media to return to Ivory Coast.

French officials have not given any details about the alleged plot, but apparently had advance warning of it. Two days before the arrests, Paris prosecutors opened an investigation into suspected terrorism-and mercenary-related activities, judicial officials said.
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