Credit: Wikipedia / Former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo

By Gary Raynaldo  DIPLOMATIC TIMES

The International Criminal Court Tuesday cleared former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo of war crimes and ordered his release from The Hague-based detention centre.  ICC judges ordered the immediate release of the 73-year-old ex-leader, who was  the first head of state to stand trial at The Hague Netherlands war tribunal. The ICC also acquitted Gbagbo’s right-hand man Charles Blé Goudé  from all war crime charges.  

Gbagbo and Blé Goudé were accused of four counts of crimes against humanity (murder, rape, attempted murder, and persecution) allegedly committed in the context of post-electoral violence in  Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) between 16 December 2010 and 12 April 2011. Their trial opened on Jan. 28, 2016.  Both Gbagbo and Blé Goudé pleaded not guilty.  Gbabgo and Blé Goudé also requested the ICC to acquit them on grounds that there is not enough evidence to proceed with the trial.   According to a statement from the ICC, Trial Judge Cuno Tarfusser (presiding) and Geoffrey Henderson, forming the Majority of the Chamber, noted the violent political conflict in the context of the 2010 presidential elections, in Abidjan and in other parts of the country.

ICC DECISION TO ACQUIT GBAGBO: 

“The Majority, however, considered that the Prosecutor has failed to submit sufficient evidence to demonstrate the responsibility of Mr. Gbagbo and Mr. Blé Goudé for the incidents under the Chamber’s scrutiny. In particular, having thoroughly analysed the evidence, the Chamber concluded by majority that the Prosecutor has failed to demonstrate several core constitutive elements of the crimes as charged, including the existence of a “common plan” to keep Mr. Gbagbo in power, which included the commission of crimes against civilians “pursuant to or in furtherance of a State or organisational policy”; and the existence of patterns of violence from which it could be inferred that there was a “policy to attack a civilian population.”

The ICC Chamber further concluded, by majority, that the Prosecutor failed to demonstrate that public speeches by Gbagbo and Blé Goudé constituted ordering, soliciting or inducing the alleged crimes. The Chamber decided that, accordingly, there is no need for the defence to submit further evidence.

Credit: ICCtwitter.com / Laruent Gbagbo at Tuesday Jan. 15, 2019 court hearing in The Hague Netherlands.

Credit: ICCtwitter.com/  Charles Blé Goudé  Jan. 15, 2019 court hearing in The Hague Netherlands.

Some 3,000 people lost their lives in the crisis, after Gbagbo refused to concede victory to his rival, Alassane Ouattara, Ivory Coast’s current president.   Blé  Goude was the head of the Young Patriots, an organisation of Gbagbo loyalists that was blamed for a campaign of violence against those seen as Ouattara’s supporters.

Gbabgo’s Supporters In Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) Celebrate Former President’s Acquittal Of War Crimes

Credit: ewn.co.za/ AFP /  People celebrate with a portrait of former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo on 15 January 2019 in his birth-town Gagnoa after the news that ICC  acquitted Gbagbo of war crimes.

ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda Issues  Statement After The Hague Court’s Decision Credit: ICC.com /  International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda

“In a decision this morning, two of the three Judges of Trial Chamber I of the Court in the case against Messrs Laurent Gbagbo and Charles Blé Goudé, decided to acquit them of crimes against humanity we allege they committed based on the evidence my Office collected through its independent and objective investigations. The Judges have made their decision. The Prosecution has the right to appeal this decision.  This situation involved allegations of serious crimes under the Rome Statute committed in the Côte d’Ivoire. We will be carefully analysing the written decision of the Trial Chamber I and its reasons when they become available and assess the appropriate next steps.” 

ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda  Jan. 15, 2015 

The release of Messrs Gbagbo and Blé Goudé has been suspended until tomorrow (Wednesday Jan. 16, 2019), according to Bensouda.   The ICC prosecutor stated that its investigations in the Côte d’Ivoire situation continues.

Is The ICC Biased Against African Leaders In Its Decisions To Prosecute Alleged War Criminals?

ICC headquarters in The Hague Netherlands.

Many observers are of the opinion that today’s clearing of all war crimes against Gbagbo and Blé Goudé  will certainly bolster the believe  of those who maintain the ICC is biased and targets African leaders inappropriately. 

“The ICC was supposed to address the whole world, but it ended up covering only Africa. From the time of its inception, I said there was a fraud basis on which it was set up and how it was going to be used. I told people that this would be a court to try Africans, not people from across the world. And I don’t believe I have been proven wrong.”

Rwandan President Paul Kagame

The permanent court in the Netherlands was established by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court treaty in 1998 in order to prosecute and punish individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression.  Since its, all but one of the ICC’s 10 investigations have been in Africa, and its five convicted suspects are from Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and Mali.

Gbabgo Is The Second Major African Leader To Be Cleared Of All War Crime Charges By The ICC 

Credit: International Criminal Court:  Former DR Congo rebel Jean-Pierre Bemba was also accused of war crimes by the ICC, and ultimately convicted of the charges 2016.  However, the ICC’s Appeal judges in June 2018 overturned Bemba’s 2016 conviction, when he was found guilty of two counts of crimes against humanity and three counts of war crimes. He had been sentenced to 18 years in jail. The Hague-based ICC ruled Bemba, 56-years-old, could not be criminally liable for the crimes committed by his troops in the Central African Republic (CAR) in 2002 and 2003.