Gbagbo ‘free to return’ to Ivory Coast, says President Ouattara

Ex-president and his youth leader can return when they want, Ouattara says after ICC upholds their acquittal.

Ivory Coast’s President Alassane Ouattara has said his predecessor Laurent Gbagbo and his youth leader Charles Ble Goude are “free to return to Ivory Coast when they want” after they were definitively acquitted of crimes against humanity. Ouattara’s remarks on Wednesday came a week after the International Criminal Court (ICC) upheld Gbagbo’s acquittal, with appeals judges confirming that he was finally in the clear over a wave of post-electoral violence in 2010-11. “Arrangements will be made so that Laurent Gbagbo can enjoy, in accordance with the laws in place, the advantages and allowances available to former presidents,” Ouattara said at the start of a cabinet meeting in Abidjan.