Prosecutors claim former Ivory Coast leader is a flight risk as ICC meets to discuss his release
Prosecutors said they would push on with an appeal against the acquittal of former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo and his right-hand man at the International Criminal Court and warned against releasing the men from prison.
On Tuesday, judges at the court in The Hague found prosecutors had failed to prove any case against Mr Gbagbo and they could no longer justify his detention, more than seven years after he was arrested.
Victims’ groups were angered after the former president was found not guilty of orchestrating violence in which scores of people died after Ivory Coast’s 2010 elections.
But his supporters welcomed the decision and opened the possibility that he could return to politics.
As the court reconvened yesterday to discuss the terms of Mr Gbagbo’s release, prosecutors said that they intended to appeal against his acquittal after the judges published their formal decision.
Prosecutors said there were “exceptional reasons” to oppose Mr Gbagbo’s unconditional release, as there was a “concrete risk” that he would not come back if their appeal was successful and the trial was to continue.
They asked that Mr Gbagbo be barred from returning to the Ivory Coast because of fears that he would not come back to the court.
But they said they would accept the two men’s release “if the flight risk can be mitigated by imposing a series of conditions, including that they be released to a state party other than Ivory Coast”.
Mr Gbabgo’s lawyers said the prosecution request showed they had not come to terms with their defeat.
“Laurent Gbagbo is no longer an accused person,” his lawyer, Emmanuel Altit, told the court. “Laurent Gbagbo has been acquitted. He is no longer presumed to be innocent – he has been acknowledged as being innocent.”
During the trial, which began in January 2016, prosecutors said Mr Gbagbo clung to power “by all means” after he was narrowly beaten by bitter rival and current president, Alassane Ouattara.
Mr Gbagbo has been in detention since 2011, when he was captured by Mr Ouattara’s troops, who were assisted by UN and French forces.
In a majority decision by three judges, the court said on Tuesday that prosecutors “failed to satisfy the burden of proof to the requisite standard”.
The judges said prosecutors also failed to prove a “common plan” to keep Mr Gbagbo in power, a policy of attacking civilians, or that speeches by Mr Gbagbo or aide Charles Ble Goude incited violence.
Prosecutors called the decision “disappointing and unexpected” but analysts said it would at least counter one lingering criticism of the tribunal.
“One positive that the prosecutor may be able to take from this is that it undermines the notion that the ICC unfairly targets ousted African leaders,” Mark Kersten of the University of Toronto told AFP.