Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Hospitalisation Syndrome as Potential Aetiologies of Unfitness to Stand Trial: The Gbagbo Decision: Prosecutor v Laurent Gbagbo International Criminal Court, Pre-Trial Chamber, No ICC–02/11–01/11 Judge Silvia Fernández de Gurmendi, Judge Hans-Peter Kaul and Judge Christine Van den Wyngaert, 2 November 2012

Abstract

In Prosecutor v Laurent Gbagbo, ICC Pre-Trial Chamber, 2 November 2012 it was decided that the accused former President of the Ivory Coast was fit to stand trial. Expert opinions from a general practitioner and a psychologist were not accepted and evidence from a psychiatrist was preferred. It was determined that the evidence that the accused suffered from “hospitalisation syndrome”, PTSD and depression did not satisfy the test for unfitness to stand trial. The carefully reasoned judgment of the Pre-Trial Chamber raises important issues about the relevance of conditions that fall short of psychosis in terms of their potential to render a person unfit for trial under international criminal la..