Former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo goes on trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague on Thursday for crimes against humanity from the violence surrounding the 2010 presidential election.
Gbagbo was accused of unleashing a civil war that killed 3,000 people after he refused to accept losing a presidential runoff in 2010. Gbagbo was defeated by Alassane Ouattara in a presidential election, but he insisted that he won.
Prosecutors claimed Gbagbo bears responsibility for four counts including murder, rape, and other crimes carried out by the civil war to keep him in office, ABC News reported. His former youth minister, Charles Ble Goude, was also accused of inciting violence against Ouattara supporters.
Gbagbo and his co-accused were arrested in April 2011. The charges carry maximum sentences of life imprisonment. Both Gbagbo and Ble Goude say they are innocent.
According to BBC News, Gbagbo's lawyer Emmanuel Altit said the trial is an opportunity for reconciliation, and for this reason Gbagbo awaits it with confidence.
The former Ivory Coast president's trial may prove to be the most important trial in the ICC's history. Gbagbo is the first former president to reach trial at the international court, which was established in 2002 to deal with war crimes and genocide. The court has only convicted two Congolese warlords in more than a decade of its operation.
Koné Boubakar of the Ivorian Popular Front, the political party Gbagbo founded, said the ICC trial is the trial of all hopes. Boubakar said that the trial can last for years, so there will be many chances for the truth to come out.
The international court so far brought charges against three people related to the 2010 conflict in Ivory Coast: former president Gbagbo, his wife Simone, and Ble Goude. Not one of President Alassane Ouattara's supporters has been charged, leading to accusations of victor's justice.
A lawyer representing victims of the civil war, Habiba Toure, said the ICC risked "losing credibility" as it had failed to pursue anyone from the other side of the conflict.
A day before the trial, Chief prosecutor of the ICC, Fatou Bensouda, said the investigations into the conflict in Ivory Coast will be on both sides, Reuters reported. Bensouda said that the ICC have started in 2015 to intensify investigations into the pro-Outtara camp, and it is ongoing.
Despite all the charges against former president Gbagbo, his followers hail him as a martyr and a hero who deserves freedom. Gbagbo's supporters believe their leader is a victim of collusion between France and Ouattara. They also believe that the trial in the Hague will vindicate and free him.
