Togo's supreme court on Thursday sentenced the president's half-brother and three others, including a former general, to 20 years in prison over an alleged 2009 coup plot in the West African nation.

"There is reason to declare him guilty of the crime of plotting against state security," Supreme Court President Abalo Petchelebia said of Kpatcha Gnassingbe, alleged to be the mastermind of the plot and who is the half-brother of President Faure Gnassingbe. "The court sentences him to 20 years in prison ..."