20120526
AFP
A lawyer for Ivory Coast's former president Laurent Gbagbo, suspected of crimes against humanity, has challenged the competence of the International Criminal Court, court documents showed Friday.

The defence has asked the court "to declare that the ICC is not competent regarding the period and the facts in the arrest warrant issued against Laurent Gbagbo on November 23, 2011," Emmanuel Altit, Gbago's defence lawyer, wrote in a court document that has been made public.

A hearing to consider the charges against Gbagbo, which is due to start on June 18, should enable the ICC judges to consider if the evidence produced by the prosecution is sufficiently strong to merit a trial.

However, Altit argued in a 79-page document submitted to the court that Gbagbo had been tortured and suffered other rights violations while being held in Ivory Coast, and that he would not get a fair trial.

ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo got the thumbs-up from judges on October 3 last year to probe crimes committed in Ivory Coast after disputed polls late in November 2010 led to the death of an estimated 3,000 people.

The post-vote violence broke out when Gbagbo, now 66, refused to step down in favour of his long-time rival and current President Alassane Ouattara, who was declared the winner of the election.

Five months of unrest followed in the world's largest cocoa producer, before Gbagbo was arrested at his heavily fortified home in April last year by forces loyal to Ouattara, with UN and French military backing.

Gbagbo, who blames France for orchestrating his imprisonment, was taken to northern Ivory Coast and kept under house arrest.

He was transferred to the ICC's detention unit in The Hague on November 30 last year and is currently facing four counts of crimes against humanity. He is the first former head of state to be in ICC custody.

Altit said in court papers that Gbagbo had suffered rights violations and "torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment" during his months of detention before being transferred to the ICC in The Hague.

These violations, "which had serious consequences on (Gbagbo's) physical and mental state," were contrary to article 55 of the Statute of Rome, the founding treaty of the ICC, Altit argued.

He urged the court "to recognise that these violations are of a nature to make the holding of a fair trial impossible."

Ivory Coast has signed but not ratified the Statute of Rome, the lawyer added in his submission to the court. He contended that the documents that gave the prosecutor competence to issue an arrest warrant, including a letter from Ouattara, were of no judicial value.

Demonstrations of support for Gbagbo are regularly organised outside the ICC detention centre in the Scheveningen suburb of The Hague.

The ICC, founded in 2002, is an international criminal tribunal created to prosecute perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.