DAKAR, Senegal — The International Criminal Court in The Hague said on Tuesday that it had acquitted the former president of Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo, and one of his aides of crimes against humanity and a litany of other charges related to months of violence that followed the country’s presidential election in 2010.

The decision was a severe blow to the prosecution in the case of the 73-year-old Mr. Gbagbo, the first former head of state to reach trial at the court, and raises new questions about the effectiveness of the court to pursue its mandate of dealing with war crimes and genocide, among other crimes.
Amnesty International said in a statement that the acquittal represented “a crushing disappointment to victims of postelection violence in Ivory Coast.”

Mr. Gbagbo rose to power in 2000 after a popular uprising toppled the country’s dictator. His tenure, rejected by rebels in the country’s north, led to a civil war in 2002, dividing the country between the largely Muslim north and the Christian south.

Mr. Gbagbo remained in office five years beyond his legal mandate, before a presidential election was finally held in 2010. When he lost, he waged an armed fight to stay in power. The election’s winner, Alassane Ouattara, was trapped in a hotel.

The situation dragged on for five months, and French and United Nations troops forcefully installed Mr. Ouattara as the new president, leading to a standoff that plunged the country back into a civil war that killed thousands.

Prosecutors had built a largely circumstantial case against Mr. Gbagbo for charges stemming from the violence that followed his refusal to give up power after being ousted from office during a 2010 election. The events gave rise to a bloody civil war and left a nation deeply divided to this day.

In The Hague on Tuesday, the public gallery erupted in loud cheers and screams as the presiding judge read out the decision acquitting Mr. Gbagbo and his aide, Charles Blé Goudé. Outside the court, supporters of Mr. Gbagbo gathered with champagne. In Ivory Coast’s economic capital, Abidjan, shirtless men ran through the streets toasting the former president. But victims of the civil war who had testified against him were devastated.

The legal defeat is an expensive one for a case that began with Mr. Gbagbo’s surrender. Some analysts have criticized the overall approach of the court — a faraway entity that targets leaders and works largely through intermediaries who fail to gain the trust of locals.

“This is yet another major blow for the I.C.C. prosecution, which has yet to show it can consistently sustain charges against high level accused of the most serious crimes,” said James A. Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative. He said that the acquittal underscored the need for a prosecutor who is “a person of integrity and sound judgment who is highly skilled at criminal investigation.”

Prosecutors relied heavily on circumstantial evidence and failed to gather documentation that directly implicated the defendants, according to legal analysts.


Nytimes

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