Ivory Coast: the ICC has lifted the arrest warrant against Simone Gbagbo
FPI President Simone Gbagbo on August 11, 2020. SIA KAMBOU / AFP
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2 min
The ICC lifts its arrest warrant against Simone Gbagbo.
The former Ivorian first lady was notably accused of a crime against humanity during the post-electoral crisis of 2010-2011.
The decision was taken on July 19, a month after Laurent Gbagbo's return to Côte d'Ivoire, but it was not made public until yesterday evening.
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The International Criminal Court therefore decides that the arrest warrant targeting Simone Gbagbo "
ceases to be effective
", can we read in a document of seven pages classified "
confidential
" dated July 19, but reclassified "public" Wednesday 28, and posted on the ICC website the next day.
In this decision, the Chamber relies in particular on the previous judgments of the Court: the acquittal of Laurent Gbagbo and Charles Blé Goudé in 2019 and the confirmation of their acquittal on appeal last March, which I quote, “
put evidenced by the fact that the evidence on which the arrest warrant for Simone Gbagbo was based could no longer be considered sufficient.
This mandate, therefore deemed inappropriate, ceases to take effect.
"
Simone Gbagbo will be able to travel freely
"
Unlike her ex-husband, Simone Gbagbo had never been delivered to the International Criminal Court, but she was prosecuted there for four counts of crimes against humanity: murder, rape, other inhumane acts and persecution, committed during of the 2010-2011 post-election crisis.
Simone Gbagbo "
will now be able to travel freely around the world
", rejoices her lawyer Maître Ange Rodrigue Dadjé.
"
This lifting of the mandate," the lawyer explains in a press release, "comes to end definitively the proceedings against the Gbagbo before the ICC
.
"
► See also: International justice: the thorny case of the arrest warrant against Simone Gbagbo
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Ivory Coast
International justice
Simone gbagbo
Laurent Gbagbo
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