Benin businessman sentenced in absentia to 20 years for drug trafficking

Prominent Benin businessman and former presidential candidate Sebastien Ajavon has been sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison.

The jail term is in connection with a haul of 18 kg (40 pounds) of cocaine found in a shipping container in 2016.

Charges had been dropped in 2016 against Ajavon, who ran for president that year and currently lives in France. But they were later taken up by a different court.

Ajavon has long denied charges of drug trafficking, dismissing them as a political hit job by President Patrice Talon, who defeated him in the 2016 election.

Ajavon’s legal team on Thursday evening described the ruling as a “premeditated decision” that it said it would fight in court.

Maritime police discovered the haul at the port of Cotonou in a container destined for one of Ajavon’s companies.

West Africa has for over a decade been a transit point for Latin American cocaine bound for Europe. Improved maritime policing in recent years has helped reduce the volume of cocaine passing through the region.