Two men close to Benin's president sentenced to 20 years in prison for coup plot

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

Olivier Boko, a businessman and longtime 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 court for financial crimes and terrorism in the capital, Cotonou.

Both men were arrested in September after being accused of bribing the commander in charge of the president's security to carry out a coup.

Homeky was caught while allegedly handing over six bags of money to the head of the presidential guard, according to Elonm Mario Metonou, the special prosecutor at Benin's court for financial crimes and terrorism.

During the trial, the head of the presidential guard, Col. Djimon Dieudonne Tevoedjre, said he was approached by Homeky in September to plot a coup against Talon.

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

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

While Benin has been among the most stable democracies in Africa, opposition leaders and human rights organizations have accused Talon of using the justice system to attack his political opponents after taking office in 2016 and changing electoral rules to enable him to consolidate power in 2021.

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

Lawyers for the defendants were absent during the verdict, having withdrawn earlier in protest of the court's composition.

In addition to the 20-year 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 handed individual fines of 4.5 billion CFA francs ($6.8 million) each.

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