Credit:  ©ICC-CPI/   Former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands January 2019. 

By Gary Raynaldo    DIPLOMATIC TIMES

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Fatou Bensouda has appealed the war crime tribunal’s acquittal of former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo. In January 2019, the ICC cleared Gbagbo of all war crimes and he was released from The Hague-based detention centre.   Gbagbo, 74, who spent 7 years in ICC custody,  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.  ICC judges ruled that prosecutors had failed to prove any case against Gbagbo and co-defendant Blé Goudé  and that their continued detention could no longer be justified.  Now comes prosecutor Bensouda who seems determined to see Gbagbo returned to ICC custody with Monday’s appeal. The ICC prosecutor also appealed Blé Goudé’s appeal.

Credit: : ©ICC-CPI/  ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda

“The appeal will demonstrate that the Trial Chamber committed legal and procedural errors which led to the  the acquittals of Mr. Gbagbo and Mr. Blé Goudé’ on all counts.”

-ICC Prosecutor Bensouda’s office wrote.

Gbagbo and Blé Goudé Were Accused of Four counts of Crimes Against Humanity

Credit: ©ICC-CPI  /  Laurent Gbagbo and Charles Blé Goudé at their acquittal hearing held on 15 January 2019 before the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands

ICC DECISION TO ACQUIT  LAURENT 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. ”      ICC Judges Jan. 15, 2019 

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.

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.

Gbagbo Has Been Living In Belgium Since Release From the ICC 

Belgium agreed to host Gbagbo after he was released in February 2019 under conditions including that he would return to court for any prosecution appeal against his acquittal.