Last Friday, judges of the international criminal court ordered the conditional release of Laurent Gbagbo and Charles Blé Goudé.

Following the judgment of the court of first instance that acquitted the former Ivorian president, the appeal judges decided to free the defendants. However, there is a condition to this freedom: “the appeal chamber unanimously decided to subject the release to some conditions”, the judge Chile Eboe-Osuji said.  

Among those conditions is the requirement for the defendants to live in one of the member countries of the International Criminal Court while awaiting their appeal trial. Gbagbo is to go to Belgium where his wife currently resides since Brussels agreed to host him.

Laurent Gbagbo can thus not go to Côte d’Ivoire for the time being because, though it is a member of the International Criminal Court, it refused to transfer Simone Gbagbo last time the court required them to.