Former President Gbagbo Back in Ivory Coast After Acquittal

ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST - Former President Laurent Gbagbo returned home to Ivory Coast on Thursday, a decade after his refusal to concede defeat in a presidential election sparked months of violence that left more than 3,000 people dead.

Gbagbo was extradited to the International Criminal Court at The Hague in 2011 and spent eight years awaiting trial on war crimes charges. A judge acquitted him in 2019, saying prosecutors had failed to prove their case. The verdict was appealed but upheld in late March, clearing the way for Gbagbo to leave Belgium, where he had spent the past two years. Gbagbo was escorted to a VIP hall at the airport, where he was greeted by political allies and his wife, Simone. She did not attend his trial at The Hague because the ICC also had issued a warrant for her arrest on charges related to the postelection violence.