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

By Gary Raynaldo      DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) will hold a hearing this Thursday on the application of  former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo request for reconsideration of the  The Hague-based war tribunal’s February 2019  judgment imposing conditions on the release of Gbabgo following his acquittal of war crimes charges.  The Appeals Chamber will also hear an identical application made by Gbagbo’s right-hand man Charles Blé Goudé who was also found innocent of war crimes charges. Gbagbo and  Blé Goudé were charged with four counts of crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, and other inhumane acts, or – in the alternative – attempted murder and persecution stemming from post-electoral violence in Côte d’Ivoire between December 16, 2010 and April 12, 2011. Both Gbagbo and  Blé Goudé have expressed a strong desire to return to their home country. However, the Ivory Coast government of current president Alassane Dramane Ouattara is vehemently opposed to having the two return home, as they remain extremely popular and could shake up the presidential elections scheduled for November 2020. The government of the Ivory Coast has said that it opposes former Gbagbo’s unconditional release by the ICC because his return would destabilize the west African country. 

In a January 21, 2020 filing to judges considering whether Gbagbo should be released unconditionally, lawyers for the Ivorian government noted that the former president had, through his lawyers, expressed his desire to return to his home country, according to International Justice Monitor. 

The government lawyers added that Gbagbo’s return home before judges rule on an appeal against his acquittal would place the Ivory Coast in the same troubled state that motivated the referral of the situation in that country to the ICC. They asked the court not to take that risk.

©ICC-CPI /  Gbagbo and Blé Goudé at the hearing held on 15 January 2019 before the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.

The Prosecution, the Defence teams of Gbagbo and Blé Goudé, as well as the Office of Public Counsel for Victims and representatives of Republic of Côte d’Ivoire have been invited to present their observations before the Appeals Chamber, composed of Judges Chile Eboe-Osuji (Presiding), Howard Morrison, Piotr Hofmański, Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza, and Solomy Balungi Bossa. Gbagbo and Blé Goudé have the right to be present at the hearing or represented by their Counsel, according to the ICC.

The ICC in In January 2019 acquitted Gbagbo, and he was freed from The Hague jail. However, Gbagbo remains on interim release in Belgium pending determination of an appeal by the prosecutor.  His lawyers have appealed for his unconditional release, arguing that imposing the conditions was erroneous as it lacked a legal basis.

International Court Prosecutor Appeals Ivory Coast Ex-President’s Acquittal

Credit: icc.int/  ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda

ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda appealed the Court’s acquittal of Gbagbo, 74, who spent 7 years in custody. Gbagbo was  the first head of state to stand trial at The Hague Netherlands war tribunal. 

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.  Then comes prosecutor Bensouda ,who seems determined to see Gbagbo returned to ICC custody with her appeal.  The ICC prosecutor also appealed Blé Goudé’s acquittal. 

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.