Askari Kanzu
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- Jan 7, 2011
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Latest update: 07/05/2011
Gbagbo lawyers absent during official questioning
Ivory Coasts former leader Laurent Gbagbo stood for formal questioning despite the absence of his lawyers Saturday, for an investigation over his role in the violence following last years disputed presidential elections, which left thousands dead.
By News Wires (text)
AFP - Ivory Coast's state prosecutor on Saturday began the formal questioning of fallen leader Laurent Gbagbo Saturday, despite the absence of his lawyers.
"Laurent Gbagbo has been questioned in the presence of his personal doctor," prosecutor Simplice Kouadio Koffi told AFP as he emerged from the villa in the northern town of Korhogo, where Gbagbo is under house arrest.
He had spent nearly an hour inside. Koffi said that on Sunday he would travel to Odienne, in the northwest of the country, to begin questioning Gbagbo's wife Simone. Simone Gbagbo was a key figure in her husband's regime.
Gbagbo and his entourage are being investigated over their role in the violence that followed the election last November of his rival Alassane Ouattara as president, a conflict that cost an estimated 3,000 lives.
The prosecutor chose to begin questioning him despite complaints from his French team of lawyers, who on Friday were turned back at Abidjan airport after they flew in to help defend him. Officials told them they did not have valid visas.
One of the lawyers, Jacques Verges, said Friday it was clear that the authorities in Ivory Coast did not want the former president to receive a proper defence.
"I am very pessimistic about the future of a regime which treats lawyers in such a way," he added, before being put on the next flight back to Paris.
Verges, whose past clients have included Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and Carlos the Jackal, also denounced the French government for having remained silent on the incident.
On Friday, Koffi told AFP: "The presence of lawyers, while it is desirable, is not obligatory."
Full story:
Gbagbo lawyers absent during official questioning
Ivory Coasts former leader Laurent Gbagbo stood for formal questioning despite the absence of his lawyers Saturday, for an investigation over his role in the violence following last years disputed presidential elections, which left thousands dead.
By News Wires (text)
AFP - Ivory Coast's state prosecutor on Saturday began the formal questioning of fallen leader Laurent Gbagbo Saturday, despite the absence of his lawyers.
"Laurent Gbagbo has been questioned in the presence of his personal doctor," prosecutor Simplice Kouadio Koffi told AFP as he emerged from the villa in the northern town of Korhogo, where Gbagbo is under house arrest.
He had spent nearly an hour inside. Koffi said that on Sunday he would travel to Odienne, in the northwest of the country, to begin questioning Gbagbo's wife Simone. Simone Gbagbo was a key figure in her husband's regime.
Gbagbo and his entourage are being investigated over their role in the violence that followed the election last November of his rival Alassane Ouattara as president, a conflict that cost an estimated 3,000 lives.
The prosecutor chose to begin questioning him despite complaints from his French team of lawyers, who on Friday were turned back at Abidjan airport after they flew in to help defend him. Officials told them they did not have valid visas.
One of the lawyers, Jacques Verges, said Friday it was clear that the authorities in Ivory Coast did not want the former president to receive a proper defence.
"I am very pessimistic about the future of a regime which treats lawyers in such a way," he added, before being put on the next flight back to Paris.
Verges, whose past clients have included Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and Carlos the Jackal, also denounced the French government for having remained silent on the incident.
On Friday, Koffi told AFP: "The presence of lawyers, while it is desirable, is not obligatory."
Full story:
