In a decision dated June 26, 2018, Cuno Tarfusser, the single judge in the Laurent Gbagbo and Charles Blé Goudé trial, rejected a request from Emmanuel Altit, Gbagbo’s lead defense lawyer. The request for rejection, which was made by the prosecution, related to the mid-trial brief.
Emmanuel Altit’s request has been once more rejected by the judges. Judge Cuno Tarfusser, the single judge in Laurent Gbagbo’s joint trial, rejected an application by Gbagbo’s lead lawyer in a decision dated June 26, 2018.
This request was made by the French lawyer on June 13, 2018. According to his submissions, he wanted to appeal the decision to make available to the defense teams a translated and corrected version of the mid-trial brief.
The judge indicated that this new request by the former president’s defense raised a problem already discussed and decided by the court.
“There is a manifest overlapping between the issues raised in the First and in the present Request, revealing that the latter is a mere attempt at reopening the debate not only on the merits of the issue adjudicated by the Chamber in the 26 March Decision, as reaffirmed and reiterated in the 7 June 2018 Decision, but also as to the existence of the requirements for an interlocutory appeal,” explained the Italian judge.
As a reminder, in a decision issued on June 7, Judge Tarfusser ordered the prosecutor to make available to the defense a corrected and updated brief. However, the judge indicated that the absence of a document does not constitute an infringement of Gbagbo’s defense rights.
He reaffirmed this position in the June 26 decision: “[N]either in the Decision, nor elsewhere in these proceedings has it ever been question of ‘forcing’ the Defence for Mr Gbagbo to work in a language other than the one of their choosing,” assured the judge.
Note that the other parties did not respond to this request.
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Laurent Gbagbo and Charles Blé Goudé are charged with four counts of crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, and other inhumane acts, or – in the alternative – attempted murder and persecution. The accused allegedly committed these crimes during post-electoral violence in Côte d’Ivoire between December 16, 2010 and April 12, 2011.
This summary comes from Observateur Citoyen, which offers monitoring and commentary on the ICC’s proceedings arising from the post-election violence that occurred in Cote d’Ivoire in 2010-2011. It has been translated into English for use on International Justice Monitor.