ABIJDAN, July 19 (Reuters) - A judicial inquiry in Ivory Coast into corruption allegations against Interior Minister Desire Tagro cleared him on Monday of charges including stealing money meant for victims of a toxic waste dumping.
President Laurent Gbagbo ordered the investigation last month, following accusations voiced in the press that Tagro, a close ally to the president, stole public funds and abused his office to recruit police from his own tribe.
Mamadou Diakite, spokesman for the public prosecutor, announced that Tagro had been cleared of all the charges owing to a lack of evidence.
"No sum of money coming from the Trafigura fund was put at the disposal of the minister of interior, therefore he could not have redirected it to himself," Diakite read.
Oil trader Trafigura agreed to a $198 million out-of-court settlement with the Ivory Coast government in 2007, after its toxic waste ended up being dumped in open air sites across Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s main commercial city.
Thousands complained of illnesses, although Trafigura denies wrongdoing.
Corruption is rife in Ivory Coast and has flourished since a 2002/3 war split the world’s top cocoa grower, leaving half of it in the hands of rebel fighters and its roads swarming with bribe-squeezing police and soldiers. But many Ivorians doubted someone so close to Gbagbo could be prosecuted. The opposition claimed it was an attempt to distract from the failure to hold post-war elections that are already nearly five years overdue.
The inquiry, which had until next Friday to reach a conclusion, tackled four separate accusations levelled against Tagro:
— that he stole from a $198 million pot of cash paid out by oil trader Trafigura in 2007 in a settlement after the company’s toxic waste ended up being dumped in Abidjan
— that he pilfered cash set aside to facilitate Muslims making the haj pilgrimage to Mecca between 2007-2009
— that he used his influence to stack the National Police Academy with members of his Saioua and Nahio tribes
— that he misused 10 billion CFA francs ($20.47 million) advanced by French security company SAGEM, a subsidiary of Safran <SAF.PA> meant to pay for logistics in the registration of Ivorians for I.D. cards needed to vote in delayed elections.
The inquiry found no evidence of any wrong doing on all four counts, Diakite said.
