ICC eases the conditions for the release of Laurent Gbagbo and Charles Blé Goudé

Paris, France (PANA) - The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday announced that it has reviewed the conditions for the release of former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo and his ally Blé Goudé, but rejected the Defense request by Gbagbo asking that he and Goudé be granted conditional release.
 
The ICC has decided to reconsider the need to maintain the conditions imposed on the release of the two acquitted persons, but has revoked the following conditions: not to travel outside the limits of the municipality in which they reside in the state unless expressly authorized to do so by the Court, to hand over to the Registry all the identity documents available to them, in particular their passport.
 
The Chamber also revoked the fact that the two persons reported weekly to the authorities of the receiving state or to the Registry and to comply with any other reasonable conditions imposed by the state in which they were released. The other conditions remain in force.
 
For the Chamber, the Defense for Mr. Gbagbo had not demonstrated a manifest error of reasoning, or that special circumstances justified the review of the judgment.
 
The ICC, it is recalled, acquitted Laurent Gbagbo and Charles Blé Goudé on January 15, 2019, of all the charges of crimes against humanity (murder, rape, other inhuman acts or - in the alternative - attempted murder, and allegedly perpetrated in Côte d'Ivoire between December 16, 2010 and April 12, 2011).
 
However, following an appeal by the Prosecutor against the decision to unconditionally release them, the Appeals Chamber amended the decision and imposed a number of conditions on their release.

-0- PANA BM/IS/KND/VAO 29May2020