Tag Archives: war crimes

BREAKING: Ivory Coast’s former first lady Simone Gbagbo acquitted of war crimes

Posted on by
1

An Ivory Coast court has found former first lady Simone Gbagbo not guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity after a trial on her alleged role in postelection abuses that led to the deaths of thousands.

Judge Kouadio Bouatchi with the country’s highest criminal court said a jury unanimously voted on Tuesday to free Gbagbo.

The prosecution had asked for a life sentence, saying she participated on a committee that organised attacks against supporters of her husband’s opponent after the 2010 election.

Once dubbed Ivory Coast’s “Iron Lady,” Gbagbo, who was not in court on Tuesday, must still serve 20 years in prison after being found guilty in 2015 of offenses against the state.

The prosecution had called on the jury to find the 67-year-old wife of ex-president Laurent Gbagbo “guilty of crimes against humanity and war crimes and sentence her to life imprisonment,” said prosecutor Aly Yeo.

“After her spouse came to power, she started to impose herself as the real head of Ivory Coast, the army, the police and gendarmerie,” Yeo said.

Laurent Gbagbo is on trial for crimes against humanity, including murder, rape and persecution, having been handed over in November 2011 to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

The ICC also wanted to prosecute his wife and issued a warrant for her arrest, but Ivorian authorities refused to hand her over, insisting she would receive a fair trial at home.

Ivory Coast descended into civil war in 2011 after Gbagbo’s refusal to accept defeat to Alassane Ouattara in a presidential runoff election. About 3,000 people were killed in the conflict.

“We regret this decision when we think of the many victims,” Soungaola Coulibaly, lawyer for the victims, told Reuters.

“If Simone Gbagbo is declared not guilty of these acts then who was? … The victims do not understand this decision.”

Human Rights Watch said the judgement left “unanswered serious questions about her alleged role in brutal crimes”.

“The acquittal … reflects the many irregularities in the process against her,” Param-Preet Singh, associate director in Human Rights Watch’s International Justice programme, said.

“The poor quality of the investigation and weak evidence presented in her trial underscore the importance of the ICC’s outstanding case against her for similar crimes.”

 

Source: AlJazeera

Amnesty International Condemns The Reinstatement Of Nigerian General Accused Of Possible War Crimes

Posted on by
2

Human Rights group, Amnesty International (AI), has condemned the reinstatement of a former commander of the 7 Division of the Nigerian Army, Ahmadu Mohammed, who the organization accused of possible war crimes following the alleged execution of suspected Boko Haram detainees in Giwa Barracks, Maiduguri, Borno State.

Amnesty implicated Mr. Mohammed, a Major General, alongside other serving and retired military chiefs for possible war crimes following the alleged torture and extra-judicial killings of more than 8,000 suspected Boko Haram detainees.

Mr. Mohammed was specifically accused of overseeing the killing of 640 detainees at Giwa Barracks, Maiduguri, Borno State on March 14, 2014 after the Barracks’s detention centre was attacked by Boko Haram.

Mr Mohammed was retired in 2014 after a mutiny by soldiers who accused him of knowingly leading them into a Boko Haram ambush around Chibok on May 12, 2014.

More than 70 soldiers were killed in the ambush. Mr Mohammed, whose vehicle was shot at by the angry soldiers during the mutiny, has been quietly reinstated after he allegedly wrote several letters to the army authorities asking to be recalled.

In a statement Monday, Amnesty International described the reinstatement of Mr Mohammed as a “monumental failure of the government to stamp out impunity for wars crimes at the highest level.”

“Major General Mohammed must be investigated for participating in, sanctioning or failing to prevent the deaths of hundreds of people,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International.

 “Young men and boys, rounded up by the military, were either shot, starved, suffocated or tortured to death and no one has yet been held to account. It is unthinkable that Major General Muhammed could resume command of troops before an investigation has even begun,” Mr. Shetty added.

Credit: PremiumTimes

Ivory Coast’s Former First Lady Simone Gbagbo Jailed 20 Years. See Why

Posted on by
1

Ivory Coast’s former first lady, Simone Gbagbo, has been sentenced to 20 years in jail for her role in the violence that followed the 2010 elections. Gbagbo, 65, had been charged with undermining state security.

Her husband, former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, is awaiting trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

More than 3,000 people died in the violence that followed the presidential poll after the ex-leader refused to accept defeat to Alassane Ouattara.

She and her husband were arrested in 2011 after troops stormed a bunker where the pair had taken refuge in the main city, Abidjan.

And it was in the same city where Gbagbo – once called the “Iron Lady” and known for her fiery speeches – faced trial. She was also accused of disturbing public order and organising armed gangs.

‘Ashamed of Ivorian justice’

She denied witness accounts that accused her of personally distributing arms to the death squads that operated in Abidjan during the five-month conflict.

Gbagbos

The Gbagbos were eventually captured in April 2011 after an assault supported by UN and French troops

The court unanimously sentenced her to 20 years, which is the sentence for undermining state security.

The prosecution had only asked for 10 years – but this had only been for the charge of disturbing public order.

The BBC’s Ali Bamba in Abidjan says the verdict was delivered in the early hours of Tuesday morning after eight hours of deliberation by the jury.

The former first lady remained calm, as she had been throughout the trial, almost as if she knew what was coming, he says.

Her daughter from a previous marriage, Marie Antoinette Singleton, told the BBC’s Newsday programme that the sentence was unfair and a sign of “political justice”.

“Why would you want to double it? It’s not about justice; it’s about getting rid of political adversaries.