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Thursday 28 Jan 2016 - 16:35 Makkah mean time-18-4-1437
The Hague, (IINA) - The trial of Cote d'Ivoire's ex-President Laurent Gbagbo, who is accused of crimes against humanity, has begun on Thursday at the International Criminal Court (ICC), BBC reported.
Gbagbo is facing charges related to the country's civil conflict that erupted after he lost elections in 2010. Gbagbo has become the first former head of state to stand trial in the court, which is located in the Dutch city of The Hague.
The 70-year-old Gbagbo, and his co-accused, the 44-year-old former militia leader Charles Ble Goude, pled innocent. One of Gbagbo’s advisers, Abdon Bayeto, told BBC that Gbagbo's innocence was not in doubt.
The adviser said: "He's going to plead obviously not guilty... there's been a parody of justice here. Somebody who has been in prison for five years with no proof".
A lawyer for Ble Goude, who is accused of organizing attacks on opposition supporters, described his client as a "man of peace".
Meanwhile, experts said that the trial could last three or four years. Gbagbo sparked a crisis in Cote d'Ivoire after he refused to step down following his loss to Alassane Ouattara in the 2010 presidential vote. There were bloody clashes between rival forces over five months in 2010 and 2011, resulting in some 3,000 causalities.
AG/IINA
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