Laurent Gbagbo: “You Must Search For the Killer”

By Benjamin Tegbeh|Abidjan 

A few minutes’ video recording done by former Ivory Liberian President Laurent Gbagbo in which he urged International Criminal Court to hunt for killer has been circulating in the country.

The Video is said to have been recorded prior to the arrest of the former president and his subsequent transfer to the ICC in the Netherlands in 2011.

The Ivorian strongman, was captured and taken into custody by his rival in April 2011, ending a four-month of election standoff that left hundreds dead in this once-prosperous West African nation, put international diplomacy to a severe test and ultimately dragged the country back into civil war.

Mr. Gbagbo had refused to accept defeat in November’s presidential poll in 2011

In the video, the former President is heard saying that when he got to the ICC, he was afraid, but after going through the allegations levied against him from the office of the Prosecutor General he knew that there was nothing to worry about.

“When I am arrested and prove innocent you must search for parties that are involved to get the killer” the former President noted.

In 2019, the judges ruled that prosecutors had failed to demonstrate “the existence of a ‘common plan’ to keep Mr. Gbagbo in power” which included crimes against civilians, or a “policy to attack a civilian population”.

Presiding Judge Cuno Tarfusser said the prosecution had also “failed to demonstrate that public speeches by Gbagbo constituted ordering or inducing the alleged crimes”.

The International Criminal Court in March this year upheld the acquittal of Ivory of the ex-President on charges of crimes against humanity.

Mr. Gbagbo returned to his country on June 17, 2021 from Belgium where he has been since his acquittal.

There has not been any official statement form the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) since the return of the former president whether he will contest the presidential election of 2025.

Liberia Public Radio National Correspondent in Abidjan said, it is unclear whether the former President will be arrested by the Alassane Ouattara government after sentencing him in absentia for the “looting” of the Central Bank of the West African State (Bceao) in the aftermath of the disputed poll – and in theory he could be jailed on his return which also barred from being a candidate in last year’s election.