Former Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo is on a flight en route to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague, his defence lawyer said today.
"Yes, Gbagbo is on the plane, heading to the ICC," said lawyer Lucie Bourthoumieux. The court showed Mr Gbagbo the warrant this morning, Ms Bourthumieux said.
The court is investigating killings, rapes and other abuses committed in Ivory Coast during a post-election dispute between President Alassane Ouattara and Gbagbo, when the incumbent refused to cede power despite losing an election to Ouattara.
Mr Gbagbo was captured in April by French-backed pro-Ouattara forces after a civil war killed 3,000 people and displaced more than a million. He is under house arrest in north Ivory Coast.
The court plans to focus on between two and six people thought most responsible for atrocities, the prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said during a visit to the country last month.
He reiterated that the court would only investigate crimes going back to the election, the first round of which was last October, not further back into the near decade of crisis since a failed 2002 rebellion against Mr Gbagbo that split the country in two. Mr Gbagbo's camp have rejected that time limit as unfair.
Mr Gbagbo refused to step down after losing a UN-certified election to Mr Ouattara in November. His government then used a force of soldiers, paramilitaries and youth militias to entrench his position and crush dissent, re-igniting a civil war.
Although the Ivory Coast is not one of the member countries covered by the ICC, it has accepted its jurisdiction.
Reuters