2 associates of Benin’s president sentenced to 20 years in prison for coup plot

Two men close to Benin's president were sentenced to 20 years in prison on Thursday following their arrest last year on suspicion of plotting a coup in the West African country.

Olivier Boko, a businessman and long-time friend of President Patrice Talon, and Oswald Homeky, a former sports minister, were found guilty of "conspiracy against state security" and "corruption of a public official" by the financial crimes and terrorism court in the capital, Cotonou.

The two men were arrested in September after being accused of bribing the president's security commander to carry out a coup. According to Elonm Mario Metonou, special prosecutor for Benin's court for financial crimes and terrorism, Homeky was arrested while handing over six bags of money to the head of the presidential guard.

During the trial, the head of the presidential guard, Colonel Djimon Dieudonné Tevoedjre, said Homeky had contacted him in September to foment a coup against Talon.

Boko, often seen as Talon's "right-hand man", was accused of masterminding the coup attempt and was arrested separately. He had recently expressed interest in running in the 2026 presidential election.

A third man, Rock Nieri, Boko's brother-in-law on the run, was convicted in absentia on the same charges.

While Benin is among Africa's most stable democracies, opposition leaders and human rights groups have accused Mr Talon of using the justice system to attack his political opponents after he came to power in 2016 and of changing electoral rules to allow him to consolidate his power in 2021.

After his re-election three years ago, Mr Talon promised not to seek a third term in the 2026 election. Benin's constitution limits the number of presidential terms to two.

The defendants' lawyers were absent from the verdict, having left earlier to protest the court's composition.

In addition to the 20-year prison sentence, the court also ordered the three men to pay 60 billion CFA francs ($95 million) in damages to the Beninese state.

They were also fined individually 4.5 billion CFA francs ($6.8 million) each.