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Simone Gbagbo, Côte d'Ivoire
's former first lady, sits in the dock at the Court of Justice in Abidjan on
December 26, 2014 for the start of her trial ©Sia Kambou (AFP)
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Côte d'Ivoire's former first lady Simone
Gbagbo went on trial Friday for "attempting to undermine the security of
the state" in events leading to a bloody 2010-2011 crisis that left thousands
dead. Gbagbo, who has been held for three years and is also wanted by an
international court for crimes against humanity, entered the Abidjan court
where she is standing trial with 82 others, to cheers and applause from the
public.
AFP reports the
65-year-old wife of ex-president Laurent Gbagbo, dressed in yellow and with her
hair plaited, took a front seat before the judge next to her husband's last
prime minister and party chief Pascal Affi N'Guessan.
Outside, riot police
deployed around the building and officers body-searched people entering the
courthouse.
All 77 men and six women
were charged "with undermining national defence, setting up armed groups,
taking part in an insurrection movement, disturbing the public order" as
well as "tribalism" and "xenophobia", said state prosecutor
Simeon Yabo Odi.
He pledged the trial
would be "fair and transparent." A six-member jury, including three
women, was sworn in and the hearing suspended until Monday.
The trial is viewed as
the biggest judicial challenge faced by the post-crisis government of the West
African nation.
Nicknamed the "Iron
Lady", Gbagbo is being tried for her role in events leading to months of
post-election violence that left some 3,000 people dead and badly rattled the
economy of the prosperous cocoa-producing nation.
Violence broke out in Côte
d'Ivoire in
2010 when Laurent Gbagbo refused to cede power to his rival Alassane Ouattara,
who was declared the winner of a presidential poll.
Laurent Gbagbo himself
has been held for three years in The Hague facing charges of crimes against
humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC). But Côte
d'Ivoire has
repeatedly refused to hand his wife over to the ICC on the same charge.
The presidential couple
were arrested April 11, 2011 after five months of fierce fighting following a
final push by French forces against their residence.
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The Court of Justice in
Abidjan during the trial on December 26, 2014 ©Sia Kambou (AFP)
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Pictures at the time
showed the once-powerful wife, a leading political figure accused of links with
anti-Ouattara "death squads", haggard, fearful and unkempt, her
usually stylish hair a mess. Simone Gbagbo had been held under house arrest in
Odienne in the northwest of the country since April 2011 but was transferred to
the economic capital, Abidjan, on December 1 ahead of the trial, where she is
being held in a military school.
"This trial has been
rushed through to obtain five million euros pledged by the EU as part of a
programme to rehabilitate the Ivorian justice system," one defence lawyer
said.
- Côte
d'Ivoire refuses ICC
trial -
The head of the Ivorian
Human Rights League, Pierre Adjoumani, said the trial was a test for the
country "given the positions held by the people on trial."
"It will also enable
Côte d'Ivoire
to show it is capable of organizing a jury trial," he told AFP.
Simone Gbagbo's fate has
been at the centre of intense negotiations between Ivory Coast and the ICC,
with Abidjan refusing her transfer to The Hague on the grounds that it would
undermine the political reconciliation process and that the country is
perfectly equipped to stage a just trial.
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| Simone and Laurent Gbagbo at a function in 2011 (Photo: AFP) |
Côte
d'Ivoire recently appealed an ICC demand to hand her over on the
grounds that the authorities "were not taking tangible, concrete and
progressive steps aimed at ascertaining whether Simone Gbagbo is criminally
responsible" for crimes against humanity.
"The procedure
examined by the ICC in no way stops the national authorities from starting
procedures," ICC spokesman Fadi el-Abdallah said this week.
The ICC works on a
complementarity basis to national courts of its member states.
It will only step in if
countries themselves are unable or unwilling to put suspected perpetrators on
trial.
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