Michel Gbagbo Challenges His House Arrest
The son of Côte d’Ivoire’s deposed president Laurent Gbagbo is to challenge his detention in the French courts.
Michel Gbagbo, who has joint Ivorian and French nationality, is to sue Prime Minister Guillaume Soro and 10 other people for kidnapping.
Both Michel and Laurent Gbagbo have been under house arrest in the north-eastern town of Bouna since their arrest in 11 April in Abidjan.
Michel Gbagbo’s French lawyer, Habiba Touré, announced on Friday that he had opened a legal case in Bobigny, near Paris on Monday, accusing the regime that ousted his father of kidnapping, illegal detention and inhuman and degrading treatment.
President Alassane Ouattara’s government has failed to produce a decree that justifies the detention, Touré argued.
A communiqué also accuses Laurent Gbagbo’s captors of circulating videos of him on the internet which “exhibit him as a trophy of war”.
Laurent Gbagbo opened a legal case against the French military for attempted murder in July.
Gbagbo’s Ivorian Popular Front (PFI) will boycott next month’s general election because the “results are known in advance”, according to interim leader Miaka Oureto.
President Alassane Ouattara on Friday refused to delay the 11 December election to allow the PFI to contest the vote, although in the past he has said he wanted the party to take part.
