THE HAGUE, Sept 29, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Former Ivory Coast president Laurent
Gbagbo will Monday ask the International Criminal Court to acquit him on all
charges of crimes against humanity and release him after seven years in
detention.
On trial since 2016, Gbagbo is the first-ever head of state to be handed
over to the Hague-based ICC.
Now 73, he faces four counts of crimes against humanity for his role in
fomenting a wave of post-electoral violence eight years ago in the west
African nation.
After more than two years on trial, Gbagbo’s lawyers believe the
prosecution failed to prove the charges and are demanding a “full dismissal,
an acquittal on all charges” and Gbagbo’s immediate release.
“We are confident that president Laurent Gbagbo will be acquitted, released
and will be able to return to his country,” said Justin Koua, the youth
chairman of a coalition of political parties including Gbagbo’s own Ivorian
Popular Front (FPI) as well as civil society groups.
“Mr Gbagbo is suffering an injustice,” he told AFP.
Defence lawyers also want the same for Gbagbo’s right-hand man Charles Ble
Goude, 46, leader of the “Young Patriots” group which allegedly murdered and
raped hundreds of people in order to keep Gbagbo in charge.
Judges joined the two men’s cases before trial started and both pleaded not
guilty.
– ‘Clung to power’ –
Unrest wracked the Ivory Coast for five months from December 2010 until
early 2011, after Gbagbo refused to accept his internationally-recognised
defeat by bitter rival Alassane Ouattara.
The crisis — which saw both sides level allegations of gross abuses —
paralysed the world’s largest cocoa producer and west African powerhouse for
several months. About 3,000 people died when rival supporters clashed on the
streets of Abidjan, which was then one of west Africa’s most cosmopolitan
cities.
After a months-long standoff, Gbagbo was arrested by Ouattara’s troops
aided by UN and French forces, and turned over to the ICC in 2011.
Prosecutors maintain Gbagbo clung to power “by all means” and that the
long-time leader conspired with Ble Goude to orchestrate a plan to stay in
power even before he was narrowly defeated by Ouattara.
“Nothing would be allowed to defeat Mr Gbagbo, and if politics failed,
violence was seen as politics by other means,” ICC chief prosecutor Fatou
Bensouda said at the trial’s opening.
Defence lawyers however say the prosecution has failed to prove its case
beyond reasonable doubt, despite 82 witnesses testifying, thousands of
documents of evidence and hundreds of hours of video.
– ‘Bluff’ –
If the judges indeed decide to free Gbagbo he could soon be following in
his wife Simone Gbagbo’s footsteps.
Known as the “Iron Lady”, Simone Gbagbo walked away from a 20-year jail
term in August when she was amnestied by Ouattara after seven years in
detention.
On Monday the court’s proceedings are set to be televised on a giant screen
in an Abidjan neighbourhood stronghold of Gbagbo and Ble Goude.
Several opposition figures are expected to attend the event billed as the
“last steps before an acquittal” for the two leaders.
But the Ivorian state has blasted the move.
“The former Ivorian head of state is preparing to demand a dismissal even
before the trial is completed and defence witnesses have been heard,” the
Ivorian state’s lawyers said in a statement.
“It’s a bluff,” the lawyers said.