The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court appealed on Monday against the shock acquittal of former Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo over post-electoral violence that killed around 3,000 people.
Gbagbo, the
first head of state to stand trial in The Hague, and his deputy Charles Ble
Goude, were both cleared of crimes against humanity in January and
released the following month.
“The
appeal will demonstrate that the trial chamber committed legal and procedural
errors which led to the acquittals of Gbagbo and Ble Goude on all
counts,” Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s office said.
Judges
had cleared the pair “without properly articulating and consistently applying a
clearly defined standard of proof,” said Bensouda.
Ivory Coast’s
former prime minister Pascal Affi N’Guessan, who heads Gbagbo’s Ivorian Popular
Front party, condemned the appeal.
“These
are judicial delaying tactics and political doggedness to keep Laurent Gbagbo
and Charles Ble Goude as far away from the country as possible to prevent them
from participating in Ivory Coast’s political life,” he told AFP.
Georges
Armand Ouegnin, the head of a pro-Gbagbo coalition of political parties and
civic groups, echoed him.
“I am
deeply disappointed but I’m hopeful,” he said, adding that the pair “are
innocent”.
“It’s
important that they come back to Ivory Coast for national reconciliation,” he
added.
Belgium
agreed to host Gbagbo, 73, after he was released in February under conditions
including that he would return to court for any prosecution appeal against his
acquittal.
Ble Goude
is meanwhile living in the Netherlands under similar conditions.
Gbagbo
faced charges of crimes against humanity over the 2010-2011 bloodshed following
a disputed vote in the West African nation.
Prosecutors
said Gbagbo clung to power “by all means” after he was narrowly defeated by his
bitter rival now president Alassane Ouattara in elections in the
world’s largest cocoa producer.
However,
judges dismissed the charges, saying that the prosecution “failed to satisfy
the burden of proof to the requisite standard.”
The
prosecutor had previously indicated in January that she intended in appeal but
had to wait until the court’s full written reasons for the decision came out in
July.
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