President of the Ivory Coast, Alassane Ouattara, on Saturday announced he has offered a presidential pardon to predecessor and political rival Laurent Gbagbo as part of a reconciliation drive with his predecessors ahead of elections in 2025, reported The Africa News.
In a statement on Saturday to mark the Ivory Coasts’s independence day on Sunday, Ouattara said the move was in the interests of reinforcing social cohesion. He also asked for reactivating Gbagbo’s frozen bank accounts and for his life annuity to be paid.
Ouattara also agreed to release two of Gbagbo’s closest associates who were convicted for their role in the post-election unrest.
Gbagbo, who served as president of Ivory Coast from 2000-2011, was arrested in 2011 after refusing to concede defeat in the election. He returned to the country last year after being acquitted in 2019 by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on war crimes charges for his role in a civil war, between his forces and supporters of Ouattara, which led to the deaths of around 3,000 people.
In 2018, he was also handed a 20-year jail sentence linked to the robbery of funds from the Abidjan central bank during the post-election period. He has always denied the charges.
The decision was taken after a meeting between Ouattara, Gbagbo, and former president Henri Konan Bedie last month. The three men have dominated the country’s political scene since the 1990s.
Bedie served as the country’s premier from 1993 until he was removed in a 1999 coup. Gbagbo governed from 2000 until he was defeated by Ouattara in the 2010 election.
Ouattara stood for a third term in the 2020 election; a move deemed unconstitutional by the critics and the oposition. He has insisted that he will not make an exit from the country’s politics until Gbagbo and Bedie agree to do the same. The president has not yet said whether he plans to run for a fourth term in 2025.
