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Tag: Laurent Gbagbo

  • Days after returning home, ex-Ivory Coast president Gbagbo files for divorce from wife of 32 years

    Days after returning home, ex-Ivory Coast president Gbagbo files for divorce from wife of 32 years

    Ivory Coast’s former president Laurent Gbagbo filed for divorce Monday from his wife of over three decades, his lawyer said, days after his highly anticipated return to the country.

    Gbagbo’s lawyer Claude Mentenon said in a statement that after years of “repeated rejected requests for Simone Ehivet to consent to an amicable separation”, the ex-president had asked an Abidjan court for a divorce.

    The announcement comes four days after Gbagbo returned to Ivory Coast following a decade’s absence, during which he was tried for crimes against humanity during the post-election conflict of 2010-11.

    Simone Gbagbo wielded significant political influence as first lady, and was arrested alongside her husband in April 2011 after he refused to concede defeat, sparking a conflict that left some 3,000 people dead.

    Gbagbo was sent to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where he was definitively acquitted in March after a lengthy trial.

    Simone Gbagbo was sentenced to 20 years’ prison in Ivory Coast for “violating state security”, but was released in 2018 after seven years of detention as part of an amnesty.

    Gbagbo’s homecoming comes after his once-bitter rival, current President Alassane Ouattara, embraced his return in the name of national reconciliation.

    Laurent and Simone Gbagbo, who have two daughters, married in 1989 and campaigned alongside each other for the introduction of multi-party elections in the 1990s.

    The 76-year-old ex-president, has been in a relationship for several years with 47-year-old former journalist Nady Bamba.

  • Ivory Coast’s former President returns from exile after 10 years

    Ivory Coast’s former President returns from exile after 10 years

    A Former President of Côte d’Ivoire, Laurent Gbagbo boarded a flight in Brussels on Thursday to return home for the first time since he was ousted from power in 2011.

    Gbagbo was sent to The Hague for war crimes charges of which he was later acquitted.

    There was a heavy police presence around Ivory Coast’s commercial capital Abidjan to head off any violence, even as President Alassane Ouattara’s government and Gbagbo’s supporters say they hope his return can help reconcile the country.

    In Abidjan’s Yopougon district, considered Gbangbo’s political stronghold, hundreds took to the streets to demonstrate in support of his arrival. Police fired teargas in other neighbourhoods to disperse similar crowds.

    One group chanted “Gbagbo is coming, we will install him,” while others shouted “Respect the power of Gbagbo” from mini-vans heading towards the airport.

    “It’s a great day for me to go and welcome Gbagbo,” said Liliane Kokora, who wore a t-shirt with Gbagbo’s face printed on it. “He is finally arriving in his country to give us hope.”

    Gbagbo, who came to office in 2000, was arrested after a brief civil war prompted by his refusal to concede defeat to Ouattara in the 2010 election.

    More than 3,000 people were killed in the conflict, which was fought largely along ethnic and regional lines.

    He was acquitted in 2019 of war crimes and crimes against humanity charges by the International Criminal Court for his role in the violence.

    Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa producer, has experienced rapid economic growth over the last decade but continues to experience occasional bouts of political and ethnic violence.

    At least 85 people died in unrest surrounding bitterly contested October 2020 presidential election, in which Ouattara won a third term.

    Gbagbo’s return comes after protracted negotiations between his camp and the government, which delayed granting him a passport until after the 2020 election had passed.

    After Gbagbo announced the date of his return, the government initially complained that it had not been consulted but later said he would be welcomed back in the interest of national reconciliation.

    Gbagbo 76, has said little about what political role he might play on his return.

    He retains firm support among his base of supporters, particularly in the country’s south and west.

    He also faces an outstanding 20-year prison sentence that was handed down in November 2019 on charges he misappropriated funds from the regional central bank.

    Ouattara said in April that Gbagbo was free to return, but the government has not said whether he has been pardoned.

    At the airport in Brussels, a small group of Gbango’s supporters from Paris waited to see him off. Some wore T-shirts bearing his effigy, including one with text reading “Gbagbo the Unavoidable”.

    “Why would an individual seek to return to their country? Because it is his country. It is where he belongs,” said Habiba Toure, one of Gbagbo’s lawyers, before entering the terminal.

  • Former Ivorian president, Laurent Gbagbo goes on exile in Belgium

    Belgium has agreed to take in former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo following his acquittal at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

    Under the terms of his release, he has to remain in a host country until the tribunal rules on whether to grant the prosecutors’ request for a new trial.

    He is also forbidden from contacting witnesses in the case and speaking publicly about it.

    “In response to a request from the International Criminal Court, Belgium has agreed to take in Laurent Gbagbo,” said foreign ministry spokesman Karl Lagatie.

    “That is also part of the framework of our support for international criminal jurisdictions,” he added.

    The ICC finally freed Gbagbo on Friday after his shock acquittal last month on charges of crimes against humanity.

    He and his aide Charles Ble Goude were cleared on January 15 over the wave of violence after disputed elections in the west African nation in 2010.

    His release was also on condition that he stay in whichever host state accepted him until the court decided whether to let a new trial go ahead.

    Defence lawyers had argued for the two men’s immediate and unconditional release.

    Under further conditions, Gbagbo also had to surrender his travel documents, report weekly, avoid contacting witnesses in Ivory Coast and refrain from making public statements about the case, the court documents said.

    According to Belgian press reports, Gbagbo’s second wife, 47-year-old Nady Bamba, lives in Belgium.

    Gbagbo, now 73, was the first former head of state ever to stand trial at the ICC.

    More than 3,000 people died on both sides after Gbagbo refused to concede defeat to his internationally backed-rival — and now-president — Alassane Ouattara.

    He had been held by the ICC in the Netherlands since 2011.

    The ICC’s unwillingness to let Gbagbo return to Ivory Coast may be because of the country’s refusal to surrender Gbagbo’s wife Simone, despite an outstanding ICC warrant for her arrest.

    She was convicted and jailed by the courts there in 2015, but Ouattara granted her an amnesty last year, allow her release after seven years in detention.

    Gbagbo’s release comes at a particularly tense time in Ivory Coast.

    With presidential elections due in 2020, Ouattara has not said whether or not he will run for a second term, and the coalition he formed with Henri Konan Bedie, his former ally against Gbagbo, has collapsed.