The judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) demand the acquittal of former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo and the former head of the young patriots Charles Blé Goudé. For them, the lawsuits against them have no real foundation and the accusations are not based on irrefutable evidence.
Among the reasons given by the judges, no crime against humanity was committed by the two accused Laurent Gbagbo and Charles Blé Goudé because they did not seek to deliberately attack civilians.
The judges have therefore defeated the thesis that barbaric acts have been committed in certain localities of the country. First, in December 2010, a march on the Ivorian Radio Television (RTI) had caused the death of 87 people.However, nothing shows that the president ordered the massacre of these innocents, on the contrary the security forces aimed to protect the RTI but not to harm civilians.
At the beginning of March 2011, the repression of a march organized by the women made 13 victims. But again, there is no evidence that they were killed by soldiers of the army.
Magistrates say the security forces were to handle an urban guerrilla, a popular uprising. They were therefore in a defensive position but had no intention of harming civilians.
Since 1 February 2019, Laurent Gbagbo and Charles Blé Goudé have enjoyed a freedom with conditions including that of having the authorization of the ICC to return to Côte d’Ivoire or elsewhere.
Laurent Gbagbo is now in Brussels while Charles Blé Goudé is still living in The Hague in an apartment.
