The Hague (AFP) - The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor asked judges Monday to combine the trials of former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo and his close ally Charles Ble Goude because their cases alleging post-election violence are nearly identical.
"They shared a common plan or purpose and acted jointly to implement this plan, which led to the attack against the civilian population," the top prosecutor at The Hague-based court, Fatou Bensouda, wrote in a filing.
Gbagbo's refusal to concede defeat after presidential polls in late 2010 sparked a bloody five-month stand-off in the restive west African country in which some 3,000 people died, according to the United Nations.
"It is in the interests of justice and judicial economy to join the cases against Mr Gbagbo and Mr Ble Goude," said Bensouda's petition. "The vast majority of the witnesses and other evidence to be relied upon by the prosecution relates to both accused."
Gbagbo is alleged to have fomented a campaign of violence in a vain attempt to stay in power after being defeated in his bid for reelection by Ivory Coast's current President Alassane Ouattara.
During the conflict, Ble Goude -- dubbed Gbagbo's "Street General" -- whipped up support for the incumbent with fiery speeches urging mass mobilisation against what he called pro-Ouattara "rebels" and their foreign backers.
Prosecutors said Goude commanded men that murdered, raped and burned hundreds of people alive in an orgy of violence involving both sides that ended only after Gbagbo's arrest in an assault on his Abidjan compound by Ouattara's French- and UN-backed forces.
Ble Goude was arrested in Ghana in January 2013 and extradited to the Ivory Coast, but it wasn't until March 2014 that he was sent to the Netherlands to face prosecution at the world's only permanent war crimes court.
Gbagbo is being held in The Hague, where his trial is set to start in July 2015. No charges have been filed against Ouattara's backers.
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