The International Criminal Court (ICC) has upheld the acquittal of Ivory Coast’s ex-President Laurent Gbagbo on charges of crimes against humanity.
The ruling now paves the way for the former president’s return to Ivory Coast, where he remains an influential figure till date.
He was charged in connection with violence following a disputed election in 2010 that left 3,000 people dead.
The first former head of state to go on trial at the ICC, he had denied all the allegations over the bloodshed.
This case was seen as a test of the institution’s ability to handle high-profile figures, the BBC’s Anna Holligan reports from The Hague.
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Mr Gbagbo, 75, gave the thumbs up at the war crimes court in The Hague after the ruling.
In Ivory Coast there was dancing and singing in a pro-Gbagbo suburb of the main city of Abidjan.
‘We say that the whole of Africa has just been liberated today…. That is why we have gone crazy. This day will remain engraved in our memories,’ supporter Jean Gossé told correspondents.
The former president was in court alongside ally and former youth leader Charles Ble Goude, who was accused of leading a militia backing him.
They were both acquitted in 2019, but the prosecution had appealed what was seen as the shock decision to clear them.
It argued that there were procedural errors in how the original verdict was delivered and insisted that thousands of documents and 96 witnesses presented during the trial had proved their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
But presiding Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji said: ‘The appeals chamber, by the majority, has found no error that could have materially affected the decision of the trial chamber.
‘The appeals chamber hereby revokes all remaining conditions on the release of Mr Gbagbo and Mr Ble Goude as a result of this judgment.’
Mr Gbagbo has been living in the Belgian capital Brussels since his release from detention two years ago.
His successor and erstwhile rival, President Alassane Ouattara, has invited him to return to Ivory Coast, which is still striving for political stability.
Issiaka Diaby, the president of an association for civil war victims, told the Reuters news agency: ‘We are against this decision of the ICC because the victims were forgotten.’
The violence in Ivory Coast, the world’s biggest cocoa producer, came after Mr Gbagbo refused to accept that he had lost a disputed election run-off to Mr Ouattara in 2010.
The five months of violence that followed were described as some of the most brutal clashes the country had ever seen.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
