Ivory Coast Acting PM Sues Vice.com Over Drugs-Trafficking Claim
- Hamed Bakayoko laid defamation charge with state prosecutor
- Allegations can bring Ivory Coast ‘into disrepute:’ Bakayoko
Hamed Bakayoko
Photographer: Sia Kambou/AFP via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Ivory Coast’s acting prime minister, Hamed Bakayoko, said he’s suing the publishers and reporters of a series of Vice.com articles alleging he’s involved in cocaine trafficking.
Charges including defamation and endangering public order have been laid with the state prosecutor against Vice’s U.S., Belgian and French offices, as well as the authors of the report, according to a statement from his lawyer, Marie-Irene Niamkey, on Tuesday.