Ivory Coast: Alassane Ouattara grants a presidential pardon to Laurent Gbagbo – franceinfo

Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara announced on Saturday 7 August that he has pardoned his predecessor and former rival Laurent Gbagbo, who was sentenced to twenty years in prison in his country following the 2010-2011 post-election crisis. “In order to strengthen social cohesion, I have signed a decree granting a presidential pardon to Mr. Laurent Gbagbo”, announce Alassane Ouattara In a speech on the occasion of the 62nd anniversary of the independence of Côte d’Ivoire.

The head of state also asked That his accounts be frozen and his annual life arrears paid.. . has also been paroledTwo former figures in the military and security apparatus of the regime of Laurent Gbagbo.

Laurent Gbagbo (77 years old) was finally acquitted in March 2021 of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague where he was transferred at the end of 2011. The former Ivorian president, who returned to his country in June 2021 and Yet he remained under a twenty-year prison sentence for “Stealing” The Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) during the 2010-2011 crisis.

The crisis arose from the refusal of the former head of state to recognize the victory of Alassane Ouattara in the presidential elections at the end of 2010, which led to violence that killed about 3,000 people 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-African left-wing political formation, claiming that he wanted to continue politics until his death.