On Tuesday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague acquitted Laurent Gbagbo after he had been charged with crimes against humanity in connection with violence following a disputed 2010 election that left 3,000 dead and 500,000 displaced.
He was the first former head of state to go on trial at the ICC.
ICC judges ruled that he had no case to answer because the prosecution had not managed to prove several charges against him.He was the first former head of state to go on trial at the ICC.
ICC judges ruled that he had no case to answer because the prosecution had not managed to prove several charges against him.
They have ordered his immediate release.
Presiding Judge Cuno Tarfusser said the prosecution had “failed to demonstrate that public speeches by Gbagbo constituted ordering or inducing the alleged crimes”.
Mr. Gbagbo’s supporters whooped, cheered and threw their firsts in the air in the public gallery following the announcement, the BBC’s Anna Holligan reports from the court.
In a tweet after the ruling, Mr. Rawlings described Laurent Gbagbo as a ‘true African patriot’ and intimated that, although his colleague former president did not have to undergo those times of difficulties, the freeing should rather spur on the people of Cote d’ Ivoire to bring an end to any form of divisions that might have existed among them.
A true African patriot is free. Laurent Gbagbo, despite his human weakness, did not deserve to have eight years of his life wasted by the machinations of France and Sarkozy, and their Western allies. I hope this will serve as a new beginning for Cote d’Ivoire –a source of unity, not division; strength, not weaknessHe further called on Africans to pay the needed respect to all patriots who have fought for the liberation of the continent.
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