Former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo (credit icc.int/

By Gary Raynaldo    DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

The International Criminal Court appeals judges on Wednesday upheld the acquittals of former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo and former minister Charles Blé Goudé on charges of war crimes.  In January 2019, the ICC  cleared Gbagbo of all charges if war crimes and crimes against humanity  and ordered his release from The Hague-based detention centre.   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.  The 74-year-old ex-leader,  who spent 7 years in detention, 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. 

ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda Appealed the Acquittals of Gbagbo and Blé Goudé

ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda  (credit: icc.int)

The chief prosecutor of the ICC Fatou Bensouda has appealed the war crime tribunal’s acquittal of former Gbagbo and Blé Goudé.  Bensouda seemed  determined to see Gbagbo returned to ICC custody with her appeal.  The ICC prosecutor also wanted  to see Blé Goudé back in ICC detention.  

The acquittal of Gbagbo and Mr Blé Goudé is now final

Former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo and  Charles Blé Goudé at hearing at ICC court in The Hague Netherlands, March. 31, 2021 before being acquitted of all war crimes charges. (credit: icc.int)

The Appeals Chamber confirmed, by majority, Judge Ibáñez and Judge Bossa dissenting, the decision of the Trial Chamber. The acquittal of Gbagbo and  Blé Goudé is now final. The Appeals Chamber also revoked all conditions on the release of Mr Gbagbo and Blé Goudé and directed the ICC Registrar to make arrangements for the safe transfer of  Gbagbo and Mr Blé Goudé to a receiving State or States. 

“In its judgment, the Appeals Chamber rejected, by majority, the Prosecutor’s two grounds of appeal, namely that the Trial Chamber’s decision to acquit Mr Gbagbo and Mr Blé Goudé (i) had violated statutory requirements and (ii) was taken without properly articulating and consistently applying a clearly defined standard of proof and its approach to assessing the sufficiency of the evidence. The Appeals Chamber found inter alia that, whilst trial chambers should ideally deliver both the verdict and reasons concurrently, a delay between the issuance of a verdict and its reasons cannot necessarily invalidate an entire trial process. There may, on the contrary, be clear justification for such separation in the particular circumstances of a case; most obviously in this regard is when the liberty of an acquitted defendant is at stake. The Appeals Chamber also rejected the argument that the two judges of the Trial Chamber who had formed the majority had failed to articulate and consistently apply the standard of proof. The Appeals Chamber noted in this regard that both judges had found that the evidence against the two accused had been ‘exceptionally weak’.”

-ICC Statement  Mar. 31, 2021

ICC Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji, Presiding Judge in appeal, reading the summary of the Appeals judgment in the Gbagbo and Blé Goudé case March 31, 2021.  ( ©ICC-CPI )

 Former IVORY COAST President Gbagbo Receives Diplomatic Passport To Return to ABIDJAN

Passport of the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)

In December 2020,   Ivory Coast  gave back the passport of its former president Gbagbo, paving the way for his return home to Abidjan.  According to Gbagbo’s lawyer, the  former leader received a diplomatic and a regular passport in Brussels and is set to return to Ivory Coast soon.  Gbagbo had initiated  multiple unsuccessful requests to the foreign minister in Abidjan for a diplomatic passport.  However, the Ivory Coast government of president Alassane Dramane Ouattara was  vehemently opposed to having Gbagbo  return home, as he remains extremely popular and could have shaken up the November 2020 presidential elections.