By RFPosted on 25-10-2019Modified on 25-10-2019 at 23:06

The ICC received this week from the Ivorian authorities information on the legal situation of Simone Gabgo, requested more than a year ago. The arrest warrant issued against the former first lady in February 2012 is still active, but Côte d'Ivoire has never executed it.

With our correspondent in The Hague , Stéphanie Maupas

The Ivorian authorities never executed the warrant and even asked the ICC to divest itself of the case, but were unsuccessful in 2014. And in September 2018, the ICC judges asked the Côte d'Ivoire to Ivory to send him details on the judicial record of the former first lady.

It took Côte d'Ivoire more than a year to respond to the order of the ICC judges. In September 2018, they ordered the authorities to send them information about Simone Gbagbo's judicial situation, including whether the arrest warrant issued against her was still valid.

Ivory Coast's response was sent to the judges this week. It includes the decision of acquittal pronounced by the Assize Court of Abidjan in March 2017, and its cancellation, 16 months later, by the Court of Cassation. The Ivorian magistrates had ordered, in stride, the conduct of a new trial.

But in August 2018, President Alassane Ouattara signed an amnesty order for 800 prisoners, including the former first lady . It was a month later that the judges asked for clarification.

With Ivorian responses, ICC judges must now resolve a thorny dilemma: let a warrant of arrest that the authorities refuse to execute or return the case to the Ivorian justice, but then validate an amnesty contrary to the law. the very spirit of the Court.

The former first lady is suspected of murder, rape and persecution during the violence that followed the 2010 presidential election in Côte d'Ivoire.

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