An Ivory Coast court on Tuesday sentenced former prime minister Guillaume Soro to 20 years in jail on charges of embezzlement and money laundering.

Soro, a former rebel leader and a candidate in presidential elections this October, currently lives in exile in France.

Soro was accused of buying a house in Abidjan in 2007 with public money. The Abidjan court on Tuesday fined him nearly seven million euros, ordered the confiscation of his Abidjan home and barred him from civic duties for five years.