International

For The Release Of Laurent Gbagbo

18/06/2016

Proclaimed winner of the presidential election of 28 November 2010 by the decision of the Constitutional Council with reference number CI 2010-EP-34/03/12/CC/SG, dated 3 December 2010, President LAURENT GBAGBO took oath on 4 December 2010 under the conditions and regulations prescribed by the Constitution. He was then the legal and legitimate President of the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire when he got ousted from power on 11 April 2011.

Without questioning the decision of the Constitutional Council, the International Organizations ordered President Laurent GBAGBO to relinquish power. Diplomatic and military Sanctions streamed in against Cote d’Ivoire causing more than sixteen thousand (1600) deaths and more fifty thousand (50 000) exiled and displaced who are scattered in Ghana, Togo, Liberia, Benin, etc.

The message that is conveyed to the African youth through the incarceration of President GBAGBO, a democratically elected President, is to say that the best way to access power is by means of arms.

President Laurent GBAGBO is a leader known for his non-violent approach in expressing his political dissent. During his thirty years of struggle that led him to power, he has never had recourse to any other weapon except that of spoken words. During his ten years in power, though thwarted by the armed rebellion and international political adversity, he did not imprison any of his political opponents or affect their physical integrity.

A fair trial following a conflict cannot be held outside the requirement of truth and in the absence of the main protagonists. But since 28 November 2011, more than five years (5 years) later, the ICC has not been able to provide any real evidence to support the charges against President Laurent Gbagbo.

It will be difficult in these circumstances to convince otherwise that the role of the ICC in Cote d’Ivoire will have been to allow the fançeafrique system to remove from power its political opponents. Such a situation can only strengthen the legitimate suspicion of judicial harassment with political grounds against President Laurent Gbagbo, against Cote d’Ivoire and Africa.

The strong mobilization around the trial of President Laurent Gbagbo sends out a strong signal against the mafia practices of Western imperialism. Cote d’Ivoire is one of the few countries in the world with the most political prisoners and exiled. Keeping Laurent Gbagbo in prison, is to legitimize the logic of the witch hunt and furthermore, to deny the people of Cote d’Ivoire and the people of Africa, the right to dignity and sovereignty.

In view of the above, the release of President Laurent Gbagbo appears as a human requirement of respect for human rights; a legal requirement of respect for law and justice; a democratic requirement of respect for institutions and constitutional norms, an imperative for national reconciliation and for the survival of Cote d’Ivoire as a nation.

The exemplary mobilization through the world of men and women who love justice and freedom, individual opinion leaders or organized movements and associations among which we can count heads of states and government, all to denounce the iniquitous wrong done to President Laurent Gbagbo through his shameful deportation to the Hague, on November 29, 2011, remains constant, engaging and should be strongly welcomed and encouraged. Our duty is to respect every man and to uphold justice in all circumstances. We say thank you to all those, men and women who are on the go for the respect and the triumph of justice.

In order to support and amplify this vast movement of resistance against the imposture as a conscientious duty to history, we, the undersigned originators and holders of this petition, call upon men and women who oppose injustice and imposture to demand together in solidarity LAURENT GBAGBO’s RELEASE.