36 Facts About Laurent Gbagbo

Koudou Laurent Gbagbo is an Ivorian politician who was the President of Cote d'Ivoire from 2000 until his arrest in April 2011.

Laurent Gbagbo founded the Ivorian Popular Front in 1982 and ran unsuccessfully for president against Felix Houphouet-Boigny at the start of multi-party politics in 1990.

Laurent Gbagbo won a seat in the National Assembly of Cote d'Ivoire in 1990.

Laurent Gbagbo claimed victory after Robert Guei, head of a military junta, barred other leading politicians from running in the October 2000 presidential election.

However, Laurent Gbagbo refused to step down, despite mounting international pressure.

Laurent Gbagbo was arrested in 2011 by pro-Ouattara forces, who were supported by French troops.

Laurent Gbagbo was extradited to The Hague in November 2011, where he was charged with four counts of crimes against humanity in the International Criminal Court in connection with the post-election violence.

Laurent Gbagbo was the first former head of state to be taken into the court's custody.

Prosecutors appealed the decision, and Laurent Gbagbo was prohibited from returning to Cote d'Ivoire pending the appeal proceedings.

Laurent Gbagbo was born on 31 May 1945 to a Roman Catholic family of the Bete people in Gagnoa in the then French West Africa.

Laurent Gbagbo became a history professor and an opponent of the regime of President Felix Houphouet-Boigny.

Laurent Gbagbo was imprisoned from 31 March 1971 to January 1973.

Laurent Gbagbo participated in a 1982 teachers' strike as a member of the National Trade Union of Research and Higher Education.

Laurent Gbagbo said in July 2008 that he had received crucial support from Blaise Compaore, formerly the President of Burkina Faso, while he was part of the underground opposition to Houphouet-Boigny.

Laurent Gbagbo contended that Houphouet-Boigny, who was either 85 or 90 years old, was not likely to survive a seventh five-year term.

Laurent Gbagbo was elected to a seat from Ouragahio District in Gagnoa Department and was President of the FPI Parliamentary Group from 1990 to 1995.

In 1996 Laurent Gbagbo was re-elected to his seat in the National Assembly from Ouragahio, following a delay in the holding of the election there, and in the same year he was elected as President of the FPI.

However, after it emerged that Laurent Gbagbo had actually won by a significant margin, street protests forced Guei to flee the capital.

In March 2004 an anti-Laurent Gbagbo rally took place in Abidjan; government soldiers responded by killing some 120 people.

Laurent Gbagbo said the next day that elements of the resolution deemed to be constitutional violations would not be applied.

Laurent Gbagbo visited the north for the first time since the outbreak of the war for a disarmament ceremony, the "peace flame", on 30 July 2007.

At the ceremony, Laurent Gbagbo declared the war over and said that the country should move quickly to elections, which were then planned for early 2008.

On 30 August 2008, Laurent Gbagbo was designated the FPI's candidate for the November 2008 presidential election at a party congress; he was the only candidate for the FPI nomination.

Laurent Gbagbo's party complained of fraud and ordered that votes from nine regions occupied by the ex-rebels "became FN after the Ouagadougou agreement" be annulled, but the claims were disputed by the Ivorian Electoral Commission and international election observers.

Laurent Gbagbo ordered the army to close the borders and foreign news organizations were banned from broadcasting from within the country.

Laurent Gbagbo is mainly supported by the largely Christian south; his opponents are mostly concentrated in the Muslim north.

Leaders of the Forces Nouvelles asserted that Laurent Gbagbo was not the head of state and could not make such a request and asserted that the demand was a part of a plan to commit genocide against northerners, as stated by Laurent Gbagbo's Minister of Youth and Employment.

Laurent Gbagbo was captured in the bunker below the compound and placed under arrest by the Ouattara forces.

Laurent Gbagbo was arrested in Korhogo, where he had been placed under house arrest, and was placed on a flight to The Hague on 29 November 2011.

An adviser to Laurent Gbagbo described the arrest as "victors' justice".

Laurent Gbagbo filed a "no case to answer" motion in July 2018, and hearings were held in November 2018.

The proceedings against Laurent Gbagbo were the first against a head of state undertaken by the ICC, and the failure of the ICC to convict Laurent Gbagbo for the mass atrocities was said by analysts to significantly impair the credibility of the ICC as a court of last resort.

On 30 October 2020, Laurent Gbagbo said the 2020 Ivorian presidential election spells "disaster" for the country, in his first public comments since being toppled in 2011.

Laurent Gbagbo gave the interview in Belgium, where he was awaiting the outcome of proceedings against him.

Laurent Gbagbo arrived in Adbidjan on 17 June 2021, on a commercial flight from Brussels, where he had been living for the previous three years after being released from detention.

Laurent Gbagbo visited the Ivorian exiles, whose return he wanted to the country since the Ivorian crisis, 11,000 Ivorians fled the post-election crisis to seek asylum in neighboring Ghana.