Guinea-Bissau convicts ex-bodyguard in last year's coup attempt, sentenced to 5 years

Published April 25, 2013

| Associated Press

A military tribunal in Guinea-Bissau has convicted an army captain of leading a failed coup last year.

Pansau Ntchama was sentenced on Thursday to serve five years in prison after being found guilty of treason and using illegal weapons.

Ntchama was the ex-bodyguard of Guinea-Bissau's former army chief of staff.

Authorities say he led gunmen who attacked a military base near the airport in Bissau in October 2012. The army fought back and the coup failed.

Troubled Guinea-Bissau has had so many coups and countercoups that no elected leader has been able to complete his term in the nearly four decades since the country won its independence from Portugal.

The most recent coup occurred in April 2012, just weeks before the presidential runoff election.