Hague hearing for Ivory Coast's Gbagbo postponed

Ivory Coast's former president Laurent Gbagbo waits for the judges to arrive for his initial court appearance at the International Criminal Court in The Hague December 5, 2011.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Hearings for former Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo, who was due to appear before the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, have been postponed yet again, pending a decision on whether he is well enough, the court said on Friday.

Gbagbo, 67, was due to appear before the court on August 13 to hear the charges against him and give his response. A new date for the hearing has not been set.

The hearing in The Hague had already been postponed from June when Gbagbo's lawyers said he needed more time to prepare his defence and to recover from the ill-treatment he received while in detention in Ivory Coast, before he was handed over to the ICC in November 2011.

"The Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court postponed the confirmation of charges hearing in the case against Laurent Gbagbo until the issue of Mr Gbagbo's fitness to take part in it is resolved," the court said in a statement.

It did not give details of his health or medical condition.

Prosecutors at the international war crimes court accuse Gbagbo of crimes against humanity, including murder, persecution, rape and other sexual violence, committed during a four-month civil war in Ivory Coast in which about 3,000 people died and a million were displaced.

The conflict erupted because Gbagbo, who lost the 2010 presidential election, refused to stand down.

(Reporting by Sara Webb, editing by Tim Pearce)