Acquitted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of crimes against humanity, the former head of the Young Ivorian Patriots Charles Blé Goudé said on Thursday that he hoped for a gesture from the Ivorian authorities to be able to return quickly to his country, in an interview to the France 24 channel. Like his former mentor, former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, Mr. Blé Goudé, 49, was definitively acquitted by the ICC on Wednesday, but he remains under sentence of 20 years. of prison by the Ivorian justice for “complicity in murder” within the framework of the post-election crisis of 2010-2011 which had left 3,000 dead.
Blé Goudé ready for the return home after a path that had led him to the ICC
“I hope from the power [ivoirien] a gesture, an amnesty or a pardon […] to ease the atmosphere, so that President Laurent Gbagbo and I can return home, ”said the former Minister of Youth, speaking from The Hague (Netherlands) for the first time since the verdict. “The Ivory Coast needs all of its sons. “I think I have paid enough,” he said, pleading for the “gathering of Ivorians”. He said he had “deposited his documents at the Embassy of Côte d’Ivoire in The Hague a few weeks ago” to obtain a passport, adding to have “confidence in the Ivorian authorities” to deliver it to him “within days or the weeks to come ”.
Mr. Blé Goudé fled Côte d’Ivoire after the post-election crisis of 2010-2011, which ended with the victory of President-elect Alassane Ouattara and the arrest of Laurent Gbagbo. He was arrested in 2013 in Ghana and then transferred to the ICC in 2014, to be tried alongside Laurent Gbagbo. The two men were acquitted in January 2019, and the ICC on Wednesday rejected the prosecutor’s appeal request. Charles Blé Goudé was one of the most controversial members of the Gbagbo clan, nicknamed the “general of the streets” for his ability to mobilize supporters of the former Ivorian president. His detractors and international NGOs consider him to be one of those who contributed the most to the violence during the post-election crisis of 2010-2011.
He reiterated, Thursday, his ambition to “lead” Côte d’Ivoire in the future, which he had already mentioned in June 2019. “Yes, I would like to lead my country one day,” he said. declared. He did not run in the October 2020 presidential election, won by Alassane Ouattara, who is serving a controversial third term.
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