IVORY COAST
Incendiary But Not Illegal
A panel of judges from the International Criminal Court dismissed charges of war crimes against former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo and his erstwhile youth minister Charles Blé Goudé, ruling that their public speeches were not tantamount to ordering, soliciting or inducing the alleged crimes.
Gbagbo and Blé Goudé faced charges of crimes against humanity for murder, rape and other violent acts allegedly committed between December 2010 and April 2011, when around 3,000 people were killed in post-election violence following Ghagbo’s defeat by current President Alassane Ouattara, NPR reported. Ghagbo was the first former head of state to stand trial at the ICC.
The ruling marks another setback for ICC prosecutors, following the reversal of the conviction of Jean-Pierre Bemba, the former vice president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in June.
Following the election, Ghagbo had refused to relinquish power and was pulled from an underground bunker to be transported to the Hague, where he was held for more than seven years. His supporters thronged the streets of pro-Ghagbo areas of the economic capital, Abidjan, after the verdict was announced.
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