Arusha, January 15, 2014 (FH) \u2013 C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire has requested three more months to respond to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on its obligation to transfer former Justice Minister Charles Bl\u00e9 Goud\u00e9. In a request submitted Monday, lawyers for the Ivorian government say the extra time is necessary because of judicial procedures against Bl\u00e9 Goud\u00e9 in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
On December 2, the ICC requested the Ivorian authorities to submit \u201cnot later than MondayJanuary 13, 2014\u201d their observations concerning the status of the ICC request to transfer Bl\u00e9 Goud\u00e9 to The Hague in accordance with an ICC arrest warrant. Bl\u00e9 Goud\u00e9, a former close ally of ex-president Laurent Gbagbo and leader of the Young Patriots militia, is currently detained in his country following his extradition from Ghana in January 2013. Gbagbo is in the ICC prison.<\/p>\n
In their request submitted Monday, Abidjan\u2019s lawyers say Bl\u00e9 Goud\u00e9 has been charged and questioned by Ivorian judicial authorities. The two French lawyers, Jean-Pierre Mignard and Jean-Paul Benoit, say that in the first quarter of 2014 they intend to confront him with other suspects and that his continued presence in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire is thus \u201cindispensable for the proper administration of justice\u201d. They therefore ask the ICC for three more months starting January 13.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Article 94 of the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the ICC, says that \u201cif the immediate execution of a request would interfere with an ongoing investigation or prosecution of a case different from that to which the request relates, the requested State may postpone the execution of the request for a period of time agreed upon with the Court\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ivorian judicial authorities have charged Bl\u00e9 Goud\u00e9 with war crimes committed during violence that followed the 2010-2011 elections, which left some 3,000 people dead. The crisis stemmed from Gbagbo\u2019s refusal to cede power after his defeat to current president Alassane Ouattara in the second round of presidential elections in December 2010.<\/p>\n
Gbagbo, who is suspected of crimes against humanity committed during the same period, has been held at ICC headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands, since late November 2011. His wife Simone, who is imprisoned in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire like Bl\u00e9 Goud\u00e9, is also under an ICC arrest warrant.<\/p>\n
ER\/JC<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arusha, January 15, 2014 (FH) \u2013 C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire has requested three more months to respond to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on its obligation to transfer former Justice Minister Charles Bl\u00e9 Goud\u00e9. In a request submitted Monday, lawyers for the Ivorian government say the extra time is necessary because of judicial procedures against Bl\u00e9 Goud\u00e9 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-24831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hirondellenews"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n