Ivory Coast is the latest playground of the International Criminal Court. This week the courtroom in The Hague became its theatre of justice. Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo proudly presents his biggest catch so far: Laurent Gbagbo. The prosecutor is defiant: “leaders must understand that violence is no longer an option in retaining or gaining power.” But as yet, there is no sign of a ‘presidential’ case.

By Thijs Bouwknegt, The Hague

The former history professor is the first former president to appear before the ICC. On Monday 5 December, he makes his debut in courtroom number 1. He stares at the unknown characters dressed in dark blue robes, puts on a headset and shares a smile with supporters in the public gallery. Dressed in a black suit, white shirt and blue tie, Gbagbo now looks confident, while the world still remembers him standing undressed in his white under-shirt after his arrest in April.

“I am not regretting being here and we will go on to the end,” he tells the judges on Monday. He refuses to hear the charges against him. “I was president for ten years and I did not do that,” he says, referring to the court’s allegations.

The man who in December 2010 triggered a bloody crisis by refusing to relinquish power after an election defeat, has remained virtually invisible since his arrest. He was held ‘incommunicado’ in the north of Ivory Coast. That changed when ICC judges on 23 November sent a sealed indictment to Abidjan.

The following day, in Paris President Allasane Ouattara and Ocampo orchestrated Gbagbo’s logistically prompt transfer to the Netherlands. The date was symbolically selected, one year after Ouattara’s election. “I was deceived,” says Gbagbo, “if I had been informed, I would have bought a ticket and got on a plane to The Hague myself.”

Gbagbo’s lawyer Emmanuel Altit complains that Gbagbo’s rights “were constantly violated” by the Ivorian authorities. “Even the ICC prosecutor was aware of it,” he says. But the international community was quick to applaud the operation. It is a textbook example of the intimate marriage between politics and international justice: Gbagbo was sent to The Hague just two weeks before the parliamentary elections. With the old figurehead out of the way, Ouattara is now free of the problems that a trial in the Ivory Coast could have created.

While Gbagbo and his wife Simone were already facing charges of “economic” crimes in Ivory Coast, Ouattara’s government welcomes the heavier ICC indictment. The ICC charge sheet lists murder, rape, persecution and “other inhumane acts” as crimes against humanity. But observers say it not a presidential indictment. All alleged crimes were committed between 16 December 16 2010 and 12 March 2011, when Gbagbo was already ousted.

But what about the bloodshed before that time? The ICC will not yet discuss the full decade of violence in the West African country. The court has not yet fully accepted Gbagbo’s own invitation to investigate political violence allegedly committed by rebels and opposition parties from 2002. The former leader had his foreign minister send a letter to The Hague back in 2003 in which he gives the ICC jurisdiction to investigate crimes committed from September 19, 2002, in Ivory Coast. It remains to be seen if Ocampo will file additional charges against Gbagbo, digging deeply into Ivorian history and making it a presidential case. It would be far simpler to keep the prosecution limited to the recent violence alone.

Is the ICC following the trial-recipe of the mid-level Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo? Will the prosecution stick to a clear, short and not-too-complicated indictment? For now, the OTP seems less committed to an in-depth investigation. It chooses to focus on the width – more people accused, fewer charges. But will this satisfy the needs of Ivorians who are expecting a presidential trial? Besides the limited charges human rights organisations warn against victor’s justice in Ivory Coast. Human Rights Watch was quick to urge Ocampo “to move swiftly”, on investigations into crimes committed by Ouattara’s forces. Since Gbagbo’s arrest, civilian and military Ivorian prosecutors have charged more than 120 people linked to the Gbagbo camp with post-election crimes. But no one from the pro-Ouattara camp has yet been charged with anything.

Human Rights Watch implicates 13 military and civilian leaders from both camps as potential suspects. But not all will come to The Hague. When it comes to Ivory Coast, the Prosecutor seems to follow the model of the “Ocampo Six” in Kenya. The investigations focus on a select group of high level suspects on both sides of the political spectrum. “We are investigating crimes committed by both sides and will prosecute two to three individuals per party,” says Pascal Turlan, an analyst at the ICC prosecutor’s office in The Hague.

Whether Ocampo will pursue cases involving crimes committed since 2002 remains a question in the hands of the ICC judges. They are soon to rule on this issue. In the meantime, Ocampo faces the deadline of completing his first investigations by next June, at the confirmation of charges hearing. Until then, Ouattara’s ‘Dialogue, Truth and Reconciliation Commission’ is, on paper, the only transitional justice mechanism to look into the bigger picture - an exercise which the historian Gbagbo would have appreciated much more than his trial in The Hague.