Laurent Gbagbo

Laurent Gbagbo was born on 31 May 1945 to a Roman Catholic family of the Bété people in Gagnoa in the then French West Africa. He became a history professor and an opponent of the regime of President Félix Houphouët-Boigny. He was imprisoned from 31 March 1971 to January 1973. In 1979, he obtained his doctorate at Paris Diderot University. In 1980, he became Director of the Institute of History, Art, and African Archeology at the University of Abidjan. He participated in a 1982 teachers' strike as a member of the National Trade Union of Research and Higher Education. Gbagbo went into exile in France. == Political career ==

During the 1982 strike, Koudou Gbagbo formed what would become the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI). He returned to Côte d'Ivoire on 13 September 1988 and at the FPI's constitutive congress, held on 19–20 November 1988, he was elected as the party's Secretary-General. Following the introduction of multiparty politics in 1990, Gbagbo challenged Houphouët-Boigny in the October 1990 presidential election. Gbagbo contended that Houphouët-Boigny, who was either 85 or 90 years old (depending on the source), was not likely to survive a seventh five-year term. This failed to resonate with voters, and Gbagbo officially received 18.3% of the vote against Houphouët-Boigny. In the November 1990 parliamentary election, Gbagbo won a seat in the National Assembly, along with eight other members of the FPI. Gbagbo was elected to a seat from Ouragahio District in Gagnoa Department and was President of the FPI Parliamentary Group from 1990 to 1995. ==Civil war==

Following the contested election of 2000, there were violent clashes between supporters of the FPI and supporters of the RDR. A mass grave of 57 bodies was found in Yopougon, Abidjan, in November 2000, containing the corpses of RDR supporters killed by FPI-aligned militias. The RDR launched an electoral boycott of the December 2000 elections to the parliament. The following month, an attempted coup d'état against Gbagbo occurred. The government then intensified a crackdown on northerners and those thought to be Alassane Ouattara supporters; many were jailed or killed. On 19 September 2002 a revolt by northerners against Gbagbo's government partly failed. The rebels, calling themselves the Forces Nouvelles, attempted to seize the cities of Abidjan, Bouaké, and Korhogo. They failed to take Abidjan, but were successful in the other two cities, as Gbagbo loyalists, with French military assistance, repulsed the attack. In March 2004, however, an anti-Gbagbo rally took place in Abidjan; A subsequent UN report concluded that Ivorian government was responsible for the massacre. ==Post-Civil War==

The peace agreement effectively collapsed in early November 2004 following elections that critics claimed were undemocratic and the rebels' subsequent refusal to disarm. During an airstrike in Bouaké on 6 November 2004, nine French soldiers were killed. While the Ivorian government has claimed the attack on the French soldiers was accidental, French governmental sources claimed it was deliberate and responded by destroying most Ivorian military aircraft. With the late October deadline approaching in 2006, it was regarded as very unlikely that the election would in fact be held by that point, and the opposition and the rebels rejected the possibility of another term extension for Gbagbo. The UN Security Council endorsed another one-year extension of Gbagbo's term on 1 November 2006; to not forget, many of the rebels held their guns and were prepared to advance again, however, the resolution provided for the strengthening of Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny's powers. Gbagbo said the next day that elements of the resolution deemed to be constitutional violations would not be applied. A peace deal between the government and the rebels, or New Forces, was signed on 4 March 2007, in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and subsequently Guillaume Soro, leader of the New Forces, became prime minister. Those events were seen by some observers as substantially strengthening Gbagbo's position. At the ceremony, Gbagbo declared the war over and said that the country should move quickly to elections, which were then planned for early 2008. The presidential election was again postponed to 2010. ==2010 presidential election and post-election violence==

In 2010, Côte d'Ivoire had a presidential election. Gbagbo, whose mandate had expired in 2005, had delayed the election several times. In the first round, Gbagbo faced 14 challengers; the two main ones were Henri Konan Bédié, who had been deposed in a coup eleven years earlier, and Alassane Ouattara, a former prime minister and IMF official. On 28 November 2010, the second round of the presidential election was held. Four days later the Independent Election Commission (CEI) declared Ouattara the winner with 54.1% of the vote. Gbagbo's party complained of fraud and ordered that votes from nine regions occupied by the ex-rebels "became FN after the Ouagadougou agreement" be annulled, but the claims were disputed by the Ivorian Electoral Commission and international election observers. The Constitutional Council nullified the CEI's declaration based on alleged voting fraud, and excluded votes from nine northern areas. The Constitutional Council concluded that without these votes Gbagbo won with 51% of the remaining vote. Gbagbo declared that "I will continue to work with all the countries of the world, but I will never give up our sovereignty." On 4 December 2010, one day after military leadership pledged their continuing loyalty to him, Gbagbo again took the oath of office in a ceremony broadcast on state television. Gbagbo's claim to continue in office was not accepted internationally, and rejected by France, the U.S., the United Nations, the African Union, and the regional bloc ECOWAS, Gbagbo responded by launching ethnic attacks on northerners living in Abidjan with his army made up partly of Liberian mercenaries, and rumours (unconfirmed because of restrictions on the movement of peacekeeping forces) of pro-Gbagbo death squads and mass graves have been reported to representatives of the UN. Gbagbo is mainly supported by the largely Christian south; his opponents are mostly concentrated in the Muslim north. When Nigeria demanded Gbagbo step down and the EU began imposing sanctions and freezing assets, Gbagbo demanded that UN peacekeepers and French troops leave the country. Leaders of the Forces Nouvelles (former rebels) asserted that Gbagbo was not the head of state and could not make such a request and also asserted that the demand was a part of a plan to commit genocide against northerners, as stated by Gbagbo's Minister of Youth and Employment. The ensuing post-election violence resulted in the death of 3,000 people, and the displacement of between a half-million to a million other people. On 11 April 2011, forces loyal to Ouattara supported by the French and UN forces moved to seize Gbagbo at his residence in Abidjan after failed negotiations to end the presidential succession crisis. According to Ouattara, his forces established a security perimeter at the residence, where Gbagbo had sought refuge in a subterranean level, and were waiting for him to run out of food and water. The UN had insisted that he be arrested, judged and tried for crimes against humanity during his term and since the election of Ouattara. Arrest and transfer to the International Criminal Court On 10 April 2011, UN and French helicopters fired rockets at the presidential residence. French special forces assisted forces loyal to Ouattara, the internationally recognized president, in their advance upon the compound. Gbagbo was captured in the bunker below the compound and placed under arrest by the Ouattara forces. Gbagbo's lawyer stated that the government forces were able to storm the residence after French troops blasted a wall, opening up a "getaway" tunnel that had been dug on the orders of Gbagbo's predecessor, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, and subsequently walled up by Gbagbo. Gbagbo was held in the Golf Hotel in Abidjan by Ouattara's forces, and requested protection from UN peacekeepers. Speaking from the hotel, Gbagbo told the regular armies to stop fighting. U.S. President Barack Obama welcomed news of the developments and CNN quoted U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as saying that Gbagbo's capture "sends a strong signal to dictators and tyrants. ... They may not disregard the voice of their own people". In October 2011, the International Criminal Court opened an investigation into acts of violence committed during the conflict after the election, and ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo visited the country. The following month, the ICC formally issued an arrest warrant for Gbagbo, charging him with four counts of crimes against humanity – murder, rape and other forms of sexual violence, persecution and other inhuman acts allegedly committed between 16 December 2010 and 12 April 2011. Proceedings in the ICC and acquittal The confirmation of charges hearing was scheduled for 18 June 2012, but was postponed to 13 August 2012, to give his defense team more time to prepare. The hearing was then postponed indefinitely, citing concerns over Gbagbo's health. Gbagbo's trial at the ICC began on 28 January 2016, where he denied all charges against him; crimes against humanity including murder, rape and persecution, as did his co-accused Charles Blé Goudé. Due to presenting a flight risk and maintaining a network of supporters, judges ordered him to remain in detention during his trial. From January 2016 to January 2018, ICC prosecutors presented the testimony of 82 witnesses and thousands of pieces of evidence. Gbagbo filed a "no case to answer" motion in July 2018, and hearings were held in November 2018. Presiding Judge Cuno Tarfusser and Judge Geoffrey Henderson ruled in favor of release; Judge Olga Carbuccia issued a dissenting opinion. Amnesty International called the acquittal of Gbagbo and Blé Goudé "a crushing disappointment to victims of post-election violence in Cote d'Ivoire" but noted that the Office of the Prosecutor was likely to appeal. The proceedings against Gbagbo were the first against a head of state undertaken by the ICC, and the failure of the ICC to convict Gbagbo for the mass atrocities was said by analysts to significantly impair the credibility of the ICC as a court of last resort. Appeal The ICC (International Criminal Court) panel ordered Gbagbo's immediate release, but the ICC Appeals Chamber ordered that Gbagbo remain in custody pending consideration of ICC prosecutors' appeal against Gbagbo's acquittal. and could not leave Belgium. Gbagbo's lawyers then petitioned the ICC for Gbagbo's unconditional release. On 30 October 2020, Gbagbo said the 2020 Ivorian presidential election spells "disaster" for the country, in his first public comments since being toppled in 2011. He gave the interview in Belgium, where he was awaiting the outcome of proceedings against him. In March 2021, the ICC upheld Gbagbo's acquittal. Shortly afterwards, Ouattara stated he was able to return to Côte d'Ivoire freely. He arrived in Abidjan on 17 June 2021, on a commercial flight from Brussels, where he had been living for the previous three years after being released from detention. Ouattara arranged him a diplomatic passport, and promised him the benefits that are typically given to ex-presidents, including state-provided security and a state pension. Gbagbo launched a new political party in October 2021 called the African People's Party – Cote d'Ivoire (PPA-CI). He travelled to Ghana in December 2021 to attend the funeral of Kojo Tsikata, and visited Ivorian exiles who sought asylum there following the post-election crisis. He said in March 2024 that he would run again for president as leader of the PPA-CI in the 2025 Ivorian presidential election. However, he was not included in the final list of candidates released in June 2025. He filed a case at the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights, accusing the Ivorian government of violating his rights by rejecting his candidacy over his criminal conviction, but the case was dismissed by the court. ==Honours==

• : • Collar of the National Order of the Ivory Coast ==See also==