Ivory Coast's former president Laurent Gbagbo will appear before the International Criminal Court in The Hague within days to face charges of crimes against humanity, the first former head of state to be tried by the ICC since its inception in 2002. Gbagbo, 66, was arrested and taken from Ivory Coast to the Netherlands overnight.
About 3,000 people were killed and more than a million displaced in a four-month civil war in Ivory Coast after Gbagbo refused to cede power to Alassane Ouattara in last year's election. Gbagbo is likely to be joined by other high-level suspects from both sides of the conflict, ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said. "Mr Gbagbo allegedly bears individual criminal responsibility, as indirect co-perpetrator, for four counts of crimes against humanity, namely murder, rape and other forms of sexual violence, persecution and other inhuman acts," the ICC said in a statement.
Gbagbo's detention was welcomed by human rights groups, but could prove divisive in Ivory Coast, the world's biggest cocoa producer, and trigger unrest among his supporters. The timing of his transfer is sensitive. Ivory Coast is due to hold a parliamentary election on December 11 which Gbagbo's FPI party is boycotting in protest at the treatment of its top officials arrested in connection with the conflict.
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