Benin seeks extradition of anti-Western activist Kemi Seba

Seba, born in France to parents from Benin, is wanted in Benin on charges of inciting rebellion after backing a foiled coup in December.

He will remain in custody until a bail hearing set for April 29.

The 45-year-old appeared briefly in a Pretoria court on Monday alongside his 18-year-old son and a South African national.

A source close to Seba told AFP that the activist had been living in South Africa for about five months and had overstayed his visa by roughly two months.

The special prosecutor at Benin’s court for economic crime and terrorism cases, Elonmario Metonou, said in a Monday statement that he was “currently preparing” an extradition request.

Metonou added that “political authorities are, at this stage only involved in ensuring the transmission of requests through diplomatic channels”.

South African police had said Thursday that an extradition process was under way but did not specify which country had filed the request.

One of the lawyers who represented Seba at the Monday hearing, Sesedi Phooko, said an application for political asylum had been filed in South Africa.

However, a message later posted on Seba’s X account said Phooko “does not represent Kemi Seba”.

Juan Branco, an adviser to Seba, told AFP that the lawyer’s mandate had ended before he spoke to the media.

“At this stage, no asylum request has been filed,” said Branco.

Seba was born with French-Beninese nationality but lost his French citizenship in 2024. He holds a diplomatic passport issued by Niger’s ruling junta, which took power in a 2023 coup.

Prosecutors asked the court on Monday for a postponement of the hearing to investigate the authenticity of Seba’s passport, his residency status, and alleged money laundering.

– Foiled coup –

Benin issued an international warrant for the influencer’s arrest on December 12 after he supported a foiled coup in which mutinous soldiers claimed on television to have overthrown President Patrice Talon.

After the December 7 coup attempt, Seba who accuses Talon of being too close to former colonial power France posted a video declaring it was “the day of liberation” for his country.

The uprising was swiftly put down by the military with support from Nigeria and France.

South African police said he was arrested on April 13 with more than 315,000 rand in a sting operation involving the third co-accused, who was to facilitate his transport to Zimbabwe with his son.

The third was Francois van der Merwe, leader of the Afrikaner nationalist group Bittereinders, who also appeared in court on Monday, AFP reporters said.

South African police said Van der Merwe had been paid 250,000 rand to help Seba and his son cross the Limpopo River and enter Zimbabwe.

But the same source close to Seba said the two men did not know each other and had had no direct contact before their arrest.

– Critical of France –

Anti-Western influencer Seba, whose real name is Stellio Gilles Robert Capo Chichi, has around 1.5 million followers on social media.

A prominent critic of France’s role in West Africa’s political, economic and military affairs, he has increasingly aligned himself with Russia, portraying Moscow as a counterweight to Western influence in the Sahel.

In 2023 French lawmaker Thomas Gassilloud, then chairman of the National Assembly’s defence committee, accused him of acting as a mouthpiece for “Russian propaganda” and serving “a foreign power that fuels anti-French sentiment”.

Seba has been sentenced in France for incitement to racial hatred and was stripped of his French nationality in 2024.

He has also faced run-ins with the authorities in Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Guinea.

In 2020, he was expelled from Senegal over a 2017 protest in which he burned a 5,000 CFA franc note, worth $8.90, denouncing “Francafrique,” a term used to describe France’s post-colonial influence in Africa.

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