Ivorian President Ouattara grants presidential pardon, unfrozen accounts of former President Laurent Gbagbo

Alassane Draman Ouattara said the pardon was part of reconciliation after the 2011 post-election violence that saw Ouattara elected President.

In the interests of strengthening social cohesion, I have signed a decree granting a presidential pardon,” Ouattara said on the eve of the country’s 62nd anniversary of independence.

Though former President, Laurent Gbagbo had been acquitted by the International Criminal Court, he still faced a 20-year hail term for a conviction by an Ivorian court in 2018 for his alleged role in the robbery of the Central Bank of West African States, during the post-election violence.

Laurent Gbagbo had refused in 2011 to recognize the victory of Ouattara leading to nationwide protests and killings.

Mr Gbagbo will also have access to his arrears as former President.

Curiously, Mr. Gbagbo had never been arrested since his acquittal and return to Cote D’Ivoire.

The Presidential decree also pardoned Gbagbo’s former aides, former commander of a gendarmerie unit, Jean-Noel Abehi, and former navy chief, Vagba Faussignaux.

Did Ouattara have a choice?

After Laurent Gbagbo’s acquittal by the ICC, the 2018 conviction of Laurent Gbagbo had no standing, since the international tribunal found nothing against the former president. Ouattara, having told Ivorians that his main aim is reconciling the nation, could not have ordered the arrest of Gbagbo.

Ouattara is also struggling to build a legacy considered by some Ivorians as catastrophic. Politically, he went in for a third mandate after promising Ivorians that his second would be the last. It is not clear if he will attempt a fourth mandate.

For 11 years, Ouattara has still not been able to reconcile the entire nation despite holding meetings with key opposition leaders.

Many believe that pardoning former youth leader, Charles Ble Goude would be the beginning of true reconciliation.

His foreign policy is being criticized especially after the arrest of some Ivorian mercenaries in Mali. The Malian government has held them in custody after Ivory Coast failed to prove that the soldiers were sent by the United Nations peacekeeping forces.