Gbagbo, the African country’s president from 2000 to 2011, returned from The Hague last year having been acquitted in 2019 of “war crimes” charges over his role in the civil war sparked by his refusal to recognize defeat in 2010 elections.
Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara announced on Saturday that he had offered a “presidential pardon” to his longtime rival, Laurent Gbagbo, in an effort to reconcile with his predecessors ahead of 2025 elections.
Gbagbo, the African country’s president from 2000 to 2011, returned from The Hague last year having been acquitted in 2019 of “war crimes” charges over his role in the civil war sparked by his refusal to recognize defeat in 2010 elections.
He faces a 20-year prison sentence in his home country after being convicted in 2019 of the armed robbery of the central bank in Abidjan during the post-election period. He has denied the charges.
“In order to further strengthen social cohesion, I have signed a decree granting a presidential pardon to Laurent Gbagbo,” Ouattara said in a televised address to the nation ahead of Ivory Coast’s 62nd independence anniversary today.
He also announced that he has requested that Gbagbo’s accounts be “unfrozen” and that the sums due for the lifetime presidential allowance provided be paid.
The decision comes just weeks after a rare meeting between Alassane Ouattara, Laurent Gbagbo and Henri Conan Bedier in July. These are the three protagonists in the political scene of the Ivory Coast in the last 30 years. Bentier was president from 1993 until the 1999 coup.
Laurent Gbagbo ruled from 2000 until he was defeated by Ouattara in the 2010 election. But Gbagbo’s refusal to acknowledge his electoral defeat sparked a civil war in which some 3,000 people died, before Ouattara’s loyalists finally rebels take Abidjan (the country’s largest city) under their control.
During Ouattara’s days in office, Ivory Coast has experienced relative stability. However, dozens of people died in clashes that broke out during the 2020 election period when he sought a third presidential term, which Gbagbo and Bedier described as “unconstitutional”.
President Ouattara has not yet revealed whether he plans to run for a fourth term in 2025. He has said he would like to retire from politics, but only on the condition that Gbagbo and Bedier pledge to do the same. The two former presidents have not revealed their intentions.
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