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Togo president escapes 'coup attempt'
Admin - Apr 17, 09
http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/togo-president-escapes-coup-attempt
April 17, 2009 (Press TV) - Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe escapes a 'coup attempt' after his half-brother is pin-pointed as being involved in the plot.
Gnassingbe, who cancelled his state visit to China, did not mention the name of his half-brother, former defense minister (2005-07) Kpatcha Gnassingbe, arrested on Wednesday outside the US Embassy in Lome where he had sought asylum, after a night raid on his house.
The president told state television on Friday that the coup 'was planned to be staged when I was away on a working visit to China', adding that the plotters 'wanted to seize power by force and destabilize republican institutions'. No date of his travel to China was mentioned.
This is while the Togolese prosecutor, Robert Bakai, said on Friday that 'serious and corroborating evidence' proved that the president's half-brother was the key player of the coup plot.
Police displayed as evidence to the media an array of firearms, military fatigues, flak jackets and satellite phones as well as two all-terrain vehicles captured from the arrested coup plotters, which included several officials close to Kpatcha.
Communications Minister, Oulegoh Keyewa, on Thursday condemned the plot as he thanked unnamed 'friendly nations' that helped 'thwart the destabilization attempt'.
Kpatcha Gnassingbe, whose house was raided on Sunday by elite troops in an operation that led to a bloody gunfight, has been accused by state prosecutors of 'trying to undermine state security'.
