The ex-president was under 20 years in prison. The Head of State says it wants to “strengthen social cohesion” thanks to this gesture towards his old rival.
Le Monde with afp
Ivorian president Alassane Ouattara announced on Saturday August 6 that he had granted his grace to his predecessor and former rival Laurent Gbagbo, under a 20-year sentence in his country following the post-electoral crisis from 2010-2011. “In order to strengthen social cohesion, I signed a decree granting presidential pardon to Mr. Laurent Gbagbo,” said Ouattara in a speech on the occasion of the 62 e anniversary independence from Côte d’Ivoire.
The Head of State also announced that he had asked “that his accounts be thawed and the payment of his arrears of his life annuities”. He also announced that he had signed a decree granting “parole” to two former figures of the military and security apparatus of the regime of Laurent Gbagbo, condemned for their role in the crisis of 2010-2011.
This is the Vagba Faussignaux Vagba, ex-boss of the Navy, and commander Jean-Noël Abéhi, former head of the armored squadron of the Gendarmerie of the Agban camp, in Abidjan.
Back in the political game
Laurent Gbagbo, 77, definitively acquitted in March 2021 of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of The Hague where he had been transferred at the end of 2011, returned to his country in June 2021.
Without ever having been worried since his return, he remained under the blow in Côte d’Ivoire of a conviction at 20 years in prison for the “robbery” of the Central Bank of the States of Africa of the African (BCEAO) during the 2010-2011 crisis.
The crisis was born from Mr. Gbagbo’s refusal to recognize the victory of Alassane Ouattara in the presidential election at the end of 2010 which had resulted in violence having left some 3,000 dead until the arrest of Laurent Gbagbo in Abidjan in April 2011.
In October 2021, Laurent Gbagbo launched the party of African peoples – Côte d’Ivoire (PPA -CI), a new Pan -Africanist political training on the left, ensuring that he wants to continue politics until his death.