In Côte d’Ivoire, three leaders of the PDCI university youth movement have been charged with disturbing public order and inciting others to disturb public order, according to the lawyer representing the opposition party. The three men were placed in pre-trial detention on Friday, July 11. Their arrests follow the indictment of the youth movement’s leader last week.

According to their lawyers, the three university youth leaders of the PDCI were arrested on Tuesday because of their appearance in a video posted on social media.

In the footage, Emmanuelli Blé, Jean-Paul Djabia, and Jean-Philippe Attoh are seen standing beside the president of the youth movement, Joël-Ndri Kouadio—the only one speaking in the clip. He can be heard saying: "Stay mobilized—the directives will follow."

According to Maître Suy Bi, the PDCI’s legal counsel, these words and the video are the basis for their charges. In addition to these four, Innocent Yao, president of the rural youth branch of the opposition party, was also charged last month on other grounds.

In a press release, the PDCI parliamentary group denounced what it described as an attempt to decapitate its militant youth movement.

The PPA-CI, led by Laurent Gbagbo, has voiced support for the PDCI. For Gbagbo’s party, these arrests are “arbitrary” and represent an effort to “silence the opposition by depriving it of its main mobilization force.”

The ruling party, the RHDP, has not yet commented on the case.

When contacted by RFI, the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Abidjan Court of First Instance declined to respond.