Former President Jerry John Rawlings has welcomed the exoneration of Ivory Coast’s ex-President Laurent Gbagbo saying a “true African patriot is free”.
Mr Rawlings in a tweet moments ago after the ICC ruling said the freeing of Gbagbo marked a new beginning for Ivoirians,
He lashed out on France and its western allies for the incarceration of Gbagbo insisting it was needless for the latter to have eight years of his life wasted.
Below is Rawlings’ tweet
The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has acquitted Laurent Gbagbo after he had been charged with crimes against humanity in connection with violence following a disputed 2010 election that left 3,000 dead and 500,000 displaced.
He was the first former head of state to go on trial at the ICC.
ICC judges ruled that he had no case to answer because the prosecution had not managed to prove several charges against him.
They have ordered his immediate release.
Presiding Judge Cuno Tarfusser said the prosecution had “failed to demonstrate that public speeches by Gbagbo constituted ordering or inducing the alleged crimes”.
Mr. Gbagbo’s supporters whooped, cheered and threw their firsts in the air in the public gallery following the announcement, the BBC’s Anna Holligan reports from the court.
