Ex-Dictator Bokassa Faces Trial This Week
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ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — Thousands of spectators are expected at the public trial of former Central African Republic dictator Jean-Bedel Bokassa on charges that include killing children, concealing corpses, assassination and embezzlement.
The trial opens Wednesday in a sports stadium in the Central African capital, Bangui, where discussion has centered on whether “Papa Bok” will implicate some officials.
Bokassa, 65, astonished everyone by returning to the poverty-stricken former French colony a month ago from exile in France. The former French army captain was sentenced to death in absentia in 1980.
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