ICC appeals acquittal of Ivory Coast’s Gbagbo

The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor will try Monday to overturn last year’s shock acquittal of former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo on charges of crimes against humanity.

Gbagbo and his right-hand man Charles Ble Goude were in January 2019 cleared of allegations of post-electoral violence in the restive West African nation in 2010-11 in which around 3,000 people died.

The one-time Ivorian strongman, the first former head of state to be tried by the ICC, had spent eight years behind bars in The Hague before his surprise acquittal by the court.

Appeals judges will this week listen to arguments by the ICC’s chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, who says the court erred in letting Gbagbo and Ble Goude go.

The two-day hearing will be “partially virtual” due to the coronavirus pandemic, the ICC said, and it was unclear whether Gbagbo and Ble Goude would physically be in court or follow hearings remotely.

The ICC last month allowed Gbagbo, 75, to leave Belgium where he was being hosted under strict conditions since his release from the court, but said he must return for the prosecution’s appeal.