ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — Leaping to their feet and embracing, fatigue-clad paramilitary police celebrated Friday after being acquitted of an October massacre in a case that was being viewed as a crucial test of justice in troubled Ivory Coast.
Families of the officers cheered when Judge Delli Sepleu announced the verdict. Sepleu ruled prosecutors had failed to produce any evidence directly linking the eight gendarmes to the 57 bodies found Oct. 27 in a field on the outskirts of Abidjan.
The opposition denounced the trial as a "sham."
"I think things were done in a way to ensure such an outcome," said Ibrahim Doumbia, a lawyer for relatives of the dead.
The paramilitary police had supported President Laurent Gbagbo in his struggle for the presidency in October and some officers had threatened to revolt if their eight colleagues were found guilty.
At home and abroad, the trial was seen as a test of Gbagbo's commitment to restoring democracy and rule of law. A U.N. inquiry concluded last month that the paramilitary police's responsibility was "inarguable."
After the verdict, Belgium's Justice Ministry said it had accepted a human-rights complaint filed by one of two known survivors of the massacre. A 1993 law that authorizes Belgian courts to judge human rights violations worldwide.
The officers were accused of killing primarily young Muslim supporters of opposition party Rally for the Republicans, who took to the streets to demand new elections after October's chaotic presidential vote.
The election was meant to restore civilian government to once-stable Ivory Coast after its first-ever coup, in December 1999. But junta leader Gen. Robert Guei tried to snatch victory from Gbagbo by bringing ballot-counting to a halt.
The move sparked an uprising that brought Gbagbo, who had been ahead in the polls, to power, ousting Guei. Unrest continued for a time as opposition protesters demanded a new vote. In all, an estimated 175 people died in violence surrounding the elections.
Though gendarmes supported Gbagbo, there have been no serious suggestions linking him to the massacre.
One of two known survivors of the massacre said gendarmes hunted down opposition supporters, tortured them and shot some in a military camp, then took the rest to the field and executed them.
The prosecution's case was severely weakened, however, by the two survivors' refusal to come forward to testify. Both men indicated fears for their safety.
A spokesman for the Rally for the Republicans party, Aly Coulibaly, called the trial a "sham," saying no serious witnesses had been called and noting the military court had blocked a move that would have let relatives of the victims testify.
"It would have been difficult to reach any other verdict," Coulibaly said.
Sepleu ruled the prosecution had failed to analyze tire tracks found at the field or to carry out ballistics tests on bullets found in the bodies — and thus could not link the gendarmes directly to the crime.