29 September 2014, the confirmation of charges hearing in the case The Prosecutor v. Charles Blé Goudé opened before Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague Netherlands. (Credit: ©ICC-CPI)
By Gary Raynaldo DIPLOMATIC TIMES
The International Criminal Court Thursday rejected a claim for compensation from Ivory Coast politician Charles Blé Goudé who was acquitted in 2019 of all war crime charges filed by the ICC. In January 2019, The Hague-base war tribunal also cleared former Ivory Coast President Gbagbo of all war crimes and they were released from the ICC detention centre. Gbagbo, who spent 7 years in ICC custody, 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. 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.
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
Blé Goudé Sought €819,300 Euros in Compensation From ICC
After his acquittal, Blé Goudé sought compensation from the ICC for what he maintains is his wrongful prosecution. Blé Goudé alleged he was “the victim of a wrongful prosecution amounting to a grave and manifest miscarriage of justice.” Blé Goudé maintained that the Prosecution ‘did not exercise due diligence in investigating and prosecuting’ him, ‘from the inception of the case up and through the appeal’, resulting in his wrongful prosecution. He claimed this alleged lack of due diligence was ‘a recurring phenomenon’ that ran throughout the entire proceedings against him.
Blé Goudé claimed he was owed €819,300 compensation for having been subjected to a total of 2,731 days of detention, ‘house arrest’, and restrictions while still being forced to remain in The Hague. Due to the ‘serious impact on his personal and professional life’ and taking into consideration the amount awarded for wrongful detention in the Host State, €819,300 is claimed.
The ICC disagreed. The ICC judges ruled that the Prosecution submits that its conduct at trial did not give rise to a grave and manifest miscarriage of justice. In its ruling the judges wrote: “The Chamber recalled that according to article 85 of the Statute the Court may in its discretion award compensation “[i]n exceptional circumstances, where the Court finds conclusive facts showing that there has been a grave and manifest miscarriage of justice”. The Chamber considered that Article 85(3) should not be interpreted as providing a right to compensation in all cases resulting in an acquittal and that a ‘failed’ prosecution does not necessarily mean that the prosecution was ‘wrongful’, irrespective of whether the accused spent time in detention. To consider that “a grave and manifest miscarriage of justice” took place there must be concrete evidence of a violation so serious and exceptional resulting in the proper administration of justice being compromised. The Chamber examined the stages during which the Prosecution allegedly failed to act with due diligence. At each stage of the proceedings a chamber had oversight over the process and the actions of the Prosecution were scrutinised. The fair trial rights of Mr Blé Goudé were thus safeguarded during the criminal proceedings against, rather than impeded upon,” the judges concluded.
“The Prosecution submits finally that since the Applicant (Blé Goudé) has failed to establish conclusive facts showing a grave and manifest miscarriage of justice, his request for compensation must be dismissed”
ICC Judges ruling Feb. 10, 2022.
