Belgium welcomes Gbagbo after ICC acquittal



[ad_1]

Belgium has agreed to host the former Ivorian President, Laurent Gbagbo, after his acquittal at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

As part of his conditional release, Mr Gbagbo will not be allowed to leave Belgium while waiting for an appeal.

He was the first former head of state to be tried before the ICC.

He had been charged with crimes against humanity in connection with the violence after the disputed 2010 elections, which left 3,000 dead and 500,000 displaced.

Mr. Gbagbo was captured in 2011 in a presidential palace bunker by the UN and forces backed by France supporting his rival, Albadane Ouattara.

Violence in Ivory Coast, the world's largest cocoa producer, took place after Gbagbo had refused to accept the fact that he had lost a second round of voting against Mr. Ouattara in 2010.

The five months of violence that followed were described as the most brutal confrontations ever observed in the country.

During the policy stand apart bloody clashes and targeted killings took place in Abidjan, in the south of the country, and several hundred people were mbadacred in the western town of Duékoué.

Prosecutors said Mr. Gbagbo had clung to power "by all means" and had charged him with four counts of crimes against humanity, murder, rape and kidnapping. other forms of badual violence, persecution and "others inhuman acts ".

He denied the accusations, which he said were politically motivated.

Image copyrightAFPImage captionVictims of the 2010 violence after the elections opposed to the release of Mr. Gbagbo

The ICC judges decided last month that he had no business to answer and ordered his immediate release.

Will he be free to go home?

Prosecutors appealed and argued that the former leader posed a risk of absconding and was at risk of not returning to The Hague to appeal.

Friday's decision sets the conditions that Mr Gbagbo must fulfill – give way to pbadport at the court for seeking its authorization to go beyond the boundaries of the host municipality – and to make no statement in connection with the case.

An ICC spokesman told the BBC that he could not confirm whether Mr. Gbagbo had left the ICC detention center.

A spokesman for the Belgian Foreign Ministry said that he did not know if the former leader had arrived in the country.

[ad_2]
Source link