The International Criminal Court finally freed former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo on Friday after his shock acquittal last month on charges of crimes against humanity.
Supporters sang and waved flags in the Hague after judges agreed to release the 73-year-old on condition that he stays in an as-yet-unnamed country pending an appeal by the prosecution.
Gbagbo, the first former head of state ever to stand trial at the ICC, and his aide Charles Ble Goude were cleared on January 15 over a wave of violence after disputed elections in the west African nation in 2010.
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.
ICC appeals judge Chile Eboe-Osuji said the court would release Gbagbo “to a state willing to accept them on its territory and willing to enforce the conditions set” by the court.
The court later said that Gbagbo and Ble Goude had been released from the ICC’s detention centre in The Hague for an “interim” location while his final destination was confirmed, without giving further details.
