The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday acquitted former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo over a wave of post-electoral violence in a stunning blow to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
Judges ordered the release of the 73-year-old deposed strongman, the first head of state to stand trial at the ICC, and his former youth leader, Charles Ble Goude.
Gbagbo faced charges of crimes against humanity after 3,000 people were killed in months of clashes when he refused to accept defeat after elections in late 2010.
Photo: AFP
Gbagbo clung to power “by all means” after he was narrowly beaten by his bitter rival, Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara, in elections, prosecutors said.
However, head judge Cuno Tarfusser said that the ICC “by majority hereby decides that the prosecution has failed to satisfy the burden of proof to the requisite standard.”
Gbagbo and Ble Goude have been acquitted of “all charges,” he said.
“Finally there is some justice,” Gragbayou Yves, 45, a Gbagbo supporter from Paris, said in the public gallery moments after the judgement was passed.
Wild scenes also erupted in Gbagbo’s hometown in Gagnoa, with hundreds of supporters shouting “free, free” and dancing in the streets.
Assoa Adou, secretary-general of Gbagbo’s party the Ivorian Popular Front, said that the acquittal would ease political tensions rather than exacerbate them.
The “stage is set for the unity needed to regain power in 2020,” when Ivory Coast is to elect a successor to Ouattara, Adou added.
Government spokesman Sidi Tiemoko Toure reacted cautiously to the ruling, urging Ivorians to “remain compassionate toward the victims” of the 2010 to 2011 conflict, in which atrocities were blamed on both sides.
Gbagbo was captured by Ouattara’s troops, who were being aided by UN and French forces, and sent to The Hague in November 2011. His trial started in January 2016.
The judges on Tuesday said that prosecutors had failed to provide evidence of a “common plan” to keep Gbagbo in power, a policy of attacking civilians, or that speeches by Gbagbo and Ble Goude incited violence.
Their release was suspended until a fresh hearing yesterday to give the prosecution time to respond to the judgement.
The office of ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said that the decision was “disappointing and unexpected,” adding that the prosecution had the right to appeal.
Gbagbo’s lawyers last year said that his case had descended into “fake reality” and should be dismissed, adding that he was now “elderly and fragile.”
Gbagbo’s lawyer Emmanuel Altit called the ruling a “victory for justice.”
However, the highly divisive case has tested the court’s avowed aim of delivering justice to the victims of the world’s worst crimes since its establishment in 2002.
The ICC has faced serious difficulties over attempts to try top politicians for crimes committed by subordinates or followers — most of them in Africa.
Last year, former Congolese vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba was acquitted on appeal for crimes allegedly committed by his militia in the Central African Republic in 2002 and 2003.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta also saw charges of crimes against humanity over electoral bloodshed dropped by the ICC prosecutor in 2014.
The Gbagbo result leaves the court “bitterly bruised,” said international law expert Mark Kersten of the University of Toronto.
“It leaves serious questions about the ability of the ICC to successfully target and prosecute state actors,” he said. “It must learn from these trials and errors to be better — and meet expectations — in the very near future.”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
RSS