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Ivory Coast ex-President Gbagbo goes free at ICC court in The Hague | Ivory Coast ex-President Gbagbo goes free at ICC court in The Hague |
(35 minutes later) | |
The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has acquitted Ivory Coast ex-President Laurent Gbagbo. | |
He had been charged with crimes against humanity in connection with violence following a disputed 2010 election that left 3,000 dead and 500,000 displaced. | |
Mr Gbagbo was captured in 2011 in a presidential palace bunker by UN and French-backed forces supporting his rival, Alassane Ouattara. | |
He was the first former head of state to go on trial at the ICC. | |
The violence in 2010 in Ivory Coast, the world's biggest cocoa producer, came after Mr Gbagbo refused to accept that he had lost a disputed election run-off to Mr Ouattara. | |
ICC judges ruled on Tuesday that he had no case to answer because the prosecution had not managed to prove several charges against him. They have ordered his immediate release. | |
Presiding Judge Cuno Tarfusser said the prosecution had "failed to demonstrate that public speeches by Gbagbo constituted ordering or inducing the alleged crimes". | |
Mr Gbagbo's supporters whooped, cheered and threw their firsts in the air in the public gallery following the announcement, the BBC's Anna Holligan reports from the court. | |
Analysts say the development is a blow to the ICC's reputation. | |
"Whenever a case involving mass atrocities essentially collapses at the ICC, it does damage to the perception of the court as a credible and effective institution of international justice," Mark Kersten, author of Justice in Conflict, told the BBC. | |
"Many are concerned that the court is emerging as an institution where only rebels can be successfully prosecuted," he added. |