Abidjan - A military court in Ivory Coast acquitted eight paramilitary gendarmes yesterday in a politically sensitive trial over the massacre of dozens of men in election violence last year. "The tribunal acquits them because the case is not proved," the judge said to cheers from the gendarmes' relatives in court.
The defendants were on trial for killing 57 young men whose bodies were found dumped in a forest on the edge of Ivory Coast's main city Abidjan last October. Key witnesses, including two massacre survivors, said they were too afraid to testify. Others said they were threatened by gendarmes on the first day of the trial and did not return.