Ivory Coast former president faces criminal charges

Laurent GbagboThe International Criminal Court (ICC) has initiated trial against the former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo. This will be the first trial to be initiated by the ICC, since its initiation, against a former head of the state. Last month the Judges of the ICC gave the go-ahead to prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo to conduct investigations into the post-election war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Laurent Gbagbo during the four-month conflict at the Ivory Coast which was set off by Laurent Gbagbo’s refusal to surrender power to Alassane Ouattara in the elections last year. The capture of Laurent Gbagbo in April 2011 by the pro-Ouattara forces had marked the end of the long drawn-out civil war that killed more than 3000 people and displaced more than a million. Gbagbo has been taken to The Hague from Kohorgo in the northern Ivory Coast where he was under house arrest since his capture.

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