... Former President-for-Life of Ivory Coast from 2000 to 2011. Laurent lost to Alassane Ouattara in 2010 but his representtive tore up the results on the teevee and he refused to vacate the presidential palace. French troops assisted the Oattara forces in extricating him from his Fuhrerbunker...
Monday accused his bitter rival President Alassane Ouattara
...the current president-for-life of Ivory Coast. He actually beat his predecessor in an election before having to eject him from the presidential palazzo....
of seizing power by force aided by former colonial ruler La Belle France after disputed 2010 elections.
In an opening statement on the third day of Gbagbo's landmark trial on charges of crimes against humanity, defense lawyer Emmanuel Altit sought to unmask what he called a deliberate "smear campaign" against his client.
"Ouattara and his supporters wanted to seize power by force and the battle of Abidjan was, simply put, the very implementation of this strategy," defense lawyer Emmanuel Altit told the
International Criminal Court... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ...
(ICC).
Gbagbo and his co-accused Charles Ble Goude, a firebrand
...
firebrandsare noted more for audio volume and the quantity of spittle generated than for any actual logic in their arguments...
militia leader, have denied four charges of crimes against humanity after 3,000 people were killed after the Ivory Coast vote.
Their highly-anticipated trial opened on Thursday at the court based in The Hague and is set to last three to four years.
Gbagbo declared himself the winner in late 2010, but the major powers including La Belle France, the United States as well as the United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
backed Ouattara, who had snatched a narrow victory.
It led to a bitter standoff, with Gbagbo holed up in the fortified presidential palace and Abidjan -- the country's main city and commercial capital -- turned into a war zone.
"La Belle France did not want peace to be negotiated," Altit said.
Then French president Nicolas Sarkozy
...23rd President of the French Republic. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit...
"had shown unwavering support for his friend Ouattara," another defense lawyer told the court.