Hague court issues arrest warrant for Ivory Coast's Simone Gbagbo
The international criminal court has issued an arrest warrant for Ivory Coast's former first lady Simone Gbagbo, accusing her of committing crimes against humanity during the country's post-election conflict last year.
The warrant, which was issued on 29 February but remained sealed until Thursday, alleges she was "criminally responsible for murder, rape, other forms of sexual violence, other inhumane acts, and persecution".
Human rights groups said the move risked deepening the widespread perception of "winner's justice", as no forces loyal to the current government had been arrested, despite evidence of crimes being committed on both sides. Reconciliation efforts have stalled as a result. Laurent Gbagbo, the former president whose refusal to accept defeat in an election in late 2010 triggered the brief war, is in The Hague already awaiting trial on similar charges.
More than 3,000 people died in the conflict after violent street protests escalated into all-out combat between soldiers and militias loyal to Gbagbo and fighters supporting the current president, Alassane Ouattara, who was backed by the United Nations and French troops.
The warrant accuses Simone Gbagbo of participating in the planning and orchestration of the violence. "Simone Gbagbo was ideologically and professionally very close to her husband … Although unelected, she behaved as the alter ego of her husband, exercising power and taking state decisions," the warrant says.
"There are reasonable grounds to believe that the pro-Gbagbo forces who executed the common plan did so in obeying in an almost automatic way orders received from Simone Gbagbo."
The government did not immediately say whether it planned to extradite Simone Gbagbo, who was arrested along with her husband in April 2011 as fighting came to an end and is currently being held under house arrest in the north-western city of Odienne. She is due to be tried in Ivory Coast on genocide charges.
Human Rights Watch welcomed the ICC's decision to indict Simone Gbagbo but said it must be followed up with action against Ouattara's supporters. "The continued one-sided justice domestically and at the ICC ignores many of the conflict's victims and threatens to further divide the country," said Matt Wells, west Africa researcher with Human Rights Watch.
The ICC's prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said more arrest warrants might come. "The office of the prosecutor is continuing its investigations of all crimes allegedly committed by all sides," she said. "Additional requests for arrest warrants will be submitted to the judges once we have collected enough evidence to substantiate the allegations."
Source http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/22/warrant-ivory-coast-simone-gbagbo
The warrant, which was issued on 29 February but remained sealed until Thursday, alleges she was "criminally responsible for murder, rape, other forms of sexual violence, other inhumane acts, and persecution".
Human rights groups said the move risked deepening the widespread perception of "winner's justice", as no forces loyal to the current government had been arrested, despite evidence of crimes being committed on both sides. Reconciliation efforts have stalled as a result. Laurent Gbagbo, the former president whose refusal to accept defeat in an election in late 2010 triggered the brief war, is in The Hague already awaiting trial on similar charges.
More than 3,000 people died in the conflict after violent street protests escalated into all-out combat between soldiers and militias loyal to Gbagbo and fighters supporting the current president, Alassane Ouattara, who was backed by the United Nations and French troops.
The warrant accuses Simone Gbagbo of participating in the planning and orchestration of the violence. "Simone Gbagbo was ideologically and professionally very close to her husband … Although unelected, she behaved as the alter ego of her husband, exercising power and taking state decisions," the warrant says.
"There are reasonable grounds to believe that the pro-Gbagbo forces who executed the common plan did so in obeying in an almost automatic way orders received from Simone Gbagbo."
The government did not immediately say whether it planned to extradite Simone Gbagbo, who was arrested along with her husband in April 2011 as fighting came to an end and is currently being held under house arrest in the north-western city of Odienne. She is due to be tried in Ivory Coast on genocide charges.
Human Rights Watch welcomed the ICC's decision to indict Simone Gbagbo but said it must be followed up with action against Ouattara's supporters. "The continued one-sided justice domestically and at the ICC ignores many of the conflict's victims and threatens to further divide the country," said Matt Wells, west Africa researcher with Human Rights Watch.
The ICC's prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said more arrest warrants might come. "The office of the prosecutor is continuing its investigations of all crimes allegedly committed by all sides," she said. "Additional requests for arrest warrants will be submitted to the judges once we have collected enough evidence to substantiate the allegations."
Source http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/22/warrant-ivory-coast-simone-gbagbo
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