Benin’s government plans to create a special court to punish economic crimes as well as terrorism, Xinhua reported yesterday May 16, quoting official sources.

According to information relayed, the new court should deal with terrorism, economic crimes or offenses as well as drug smuggling and other related offenses. According to the justice minister, Joseph Djogbénou (photo), the creation of this court is timely to revive a legal organization that is not yet fully equipped to deal with these two types of crimes.

“The penal code set sanctions for the crime of terrorism [...] if that happened, the courts have adequate instruments to punish, but we are yet to have the institution,” the minister said.

Let’s note that consideration of the new bill by Parliament, began May 15 in the capital Porto-Novo. The new court should be composed of a president and four assessors appointed by presidential decree.

For the record, the introduction of this new law by the Beninese State comes in a context of economic reforms and an atmosphere of insecurity within the sub-region, mainly due to attacks by terrorist groups such as Boko-Haram, in neighboring Nigeria, Niger and Burkina-Faso.

Moutiou AdjibiNourou