In the Ivory Coast, a Lebanese businessman has received a maximum twenty year prison sentence in a corruption case.

The businessman, Roger Nasra, was sentenced along with two of his accomplicesfor having stolen almost two million dollars from the treasury.

The BBC correspondent in Abidjan says MrNasra created a storm of controversy when he told the court that President Henri Konan-Bedie had a secret election fund financed with stolen money -- a charge the president denies.

But our correspondent says opposition parties will try to make maximum political capital out of the allegations.