By John Ikani
Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara on Saturday said he had offered a presidential pardon to longtime rival Laurent Gbagbo, as part of a reconciliation drive with his predecessors ahead of elections in 2025.
Ouattara made the announcement in a televised address on Saturday, a day before Ivory Coast’s independence celebrations.
Gbagbo, President from 2000-2011, returned to Ivory Coast last year after being acquitted in 2019 by the Hague on war crimes charges for his role in a civil war sparked by his refusal to concede defeat after the 2010 election.
Back home, he still faced a 20-year prison sentence for a 2019 conviction linked to the robbery of funds from the Abidjan central bank during the post-election period. He has always 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 speech.
The President said he has also asked that Gbagbo’s bank accounts be unfrozen and that his lifetime annuity be paid.
Ouattara went on to sign a decree for the release two of Gbagbo’s closest associates, former navy chief Vagba Faussignaux and a former commander of a key gendarmerie unit, Jean-Noel Abehi, both convicted for their role in the post-election unrest.
It is worthwhile to note that Ouattara’s decision for a pardon follows a rare meeting in July between him, Gbagbo, and former President Henri Konan Bedie.
Ouattara, in his Saturday speech, described that occasion as a “fraternal meeting” in which the three men had “discussed, in a friendly atmosphere, matters of the national interest and the ways and means of consolidating peace in our country”.
Gbagbo and Bedie have been invited to attend independence day celebrations on Sunday at Yamoussoukro, the country’s political capital.
The three men have dominated Ivory Coast’s fractious political scene since the 1990s.
Bedie was President from 1993 until his removal in a 1999 coup. Gbagbo governed from 2000 until his election defeat to Ouattara in 2010.
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