Lawyer: Ivory Coast's Gbagbo on flight to ICC

ABIDJAN?? Former Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo was on a flight en route to the International Criminal Court in the Hague, his defense lawyer said.

"Yes, Gbagbo is on the plane, heading to the ICC," lawyer Lucie Bourthoumieux said on Tuesday.

The ICC is investigating killings, rapes and other abuses committed during a four-month conflict triggered by Gbagbo's refusal to cede power to Alassane Ouattara after last year's election.

Gbagbo has maintained his hold over the country's military and security forces who carried out a campaign of terror against opponents.

Some critics of Gbagbo had accused him of clinging to power in part to avoid prosecution by the International Criminal Court.

Ivory Coast was divided into a rebel-controlled north and a loyalist south by a 2002-2003 civil war and was officially reunited in a 2007 peace deal.

Gbagbo already had overstayed his mandate by five years when he called the fall election and won 46 percent of the runoff vote. When the country's election commission and international observers declared on Dec. 2 that he lost the balloting, he refused to step down.

Tensions increase
A move to prosecute Gbagbo threatens to unleash further tensions between backers and opponents of the ex-president. Gbagbo still won nearly half the vote in the presidential election even though he ultimately lost to Ouattara.

The ICC court has faced heavy criticism, particularly from Africa, that so far all seven of the investigations it has opened are in Africa. The court is also under fire for apparently only launching proceedings against one side in Ivory Coast's bitter conflict.

"Investigations with a view to prosecutions are needed without delay for individuals who fought in the forces allied with Ouattara," said Elise Keppler, senior counsel with Human Rights Watch's International Justice Program.

"While the Gbagbo camp fueled the violence, forces on both sides have been repeatedly implicated in grave crimes. Victims of abuse meted out by forces loyal to President Ouattara deserve to see justice done."

Ivory Coast's long-delayed presidential election was intended to bring together the nation but instead unleashed months of violence that left several thousand dead. Then Gbagbo defied near-universal international pressure to hand over power to Ouattara. The two set up parallel administrations that vied for control of the one-time West African economic powerhouse.

Other West African nations had considered military intervention to remove Gbagbo, but those efforts never materialized. Sanctions imposed on Gbagbo and his inner circle by the U.S. and European Union failed to dislodge him.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

? 2011 msnbc.com

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45481597/ns/world_news-africa/

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