ICC rejects compensation for freed Ivory Coast politician

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — International Criminal Court judges have rejected a senior Ivory Coast politician’s claim for compensation after he was acquitted of involvement in deadly violence that broke out after elections in 2010. Former Youth Minister Charles Ble Goude was cleared in 2019, along with former president Laurent Gbagbo, of responsibility for crimes including murder, rape and persecution following the disputed elections. Appeals judges upheld the acquittals last year. Ble Goude’s laywers sought compensation, arguing that he was “the victim of a wrongful prosecution amounting to a grave and manifest miscarriage of justice.” But judges dismissed the request Thursday. They say that no “grave and manifest miscarriage of justice has been shown to have taken place.”