Ivory Coast: In Brussels, a discreet departure for Laurent Gbagbo
Supporters of Laurent Gbagbo at Brussels airport on June 17, 2021, the day of the former president's return to Côte d'Ivoire.
© Charlotte Cosset / RFI
Text by: RFI Follow
6 mins
It was not until Thursday that the former president returned to Cote d'Ivoire almost 10 years after his transfer to the ICC.
His plane took off from Brussels at 11:47 a.m.
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About fifteen of them made the trip to the airport. Flags and scarves of Côte d'Ivoire as a standard, in the hope of saying goodbye to Laurent Gbagbo. Some came from France for this moment which they qualify as “apotheosis”. Several personalities such as the singers Serge Kassy, François Kency or Gadji Céli or the former professional footballer Joël Tiéhi, but ultimately they will not even have seen him. His lawyer Habiba Touré, who is accompanying him on this trip, specifies that he was led discreetly into the protocol lounge while awaiting boarding.
A question of security, but it was also a question of not offending or inconveniencing Belgium.
“
We walk on eggshells,
” says a member of his entourage.
A large Atlantic summit and the anti-covid rules will have got the better of the rallying ambitions.
It is a family act, assures several of his relatives.
“
It's a family trip.
He returns surrounded by some of his family,
”confirms his lawyer
Habiba Touré
.
"
It is an institution," adds a political analyst who was very mobilized, especially during the procedure at the ICC.
Laurent Gbagbo's return belongs to him.
We respect the terms that he will have.
"
In Brussels, a discreet life
In the opinion of various relatives, the joy for him is not at the start, but at the end. Moreover, Laurent Gbagbo will not speak to the press, specifies a member of his entourage. Neither before his departure, nor on the plane despite the attempts that will not fail to make certain colleagues who slipped into the flight. According to one of his former advisers who visited him a few days before his departure, “the president's state of mind is extremely positive, committed to getting home well and making people understand that he is coming for reconciliation, that everything everyone sits around the table. "His lawyer assures us that Laurent Gbagbo is" serene and impatient to return home. He is eager to set foot on his native land. "
“
His life in Brussels was in the woods next to his home, walking. Laurent Gbagbo always does a little gymnastics at home, he is in good shape,
”says this former adviser. His lawyer confirms the exits out of his residence, in the discretion, as much as it can be possible. “
He was trying to walk around but his movements were quite limited because it is Laurent Gbagbo. He does not go incognito,
”says Maître Touré.
Living with his partner Nady Bamba, who made the return trip with him, he however often received.
"
He wanted to listen to the feelings people had, the news from the country, how people perceived things
", further details Maitre Touré.
Relatives sometimes that he had not seen since 2011, people from the diaspora, from his party but also political leaders.
And then there is reading.
A member of his party said that there was no question of giving him anything other than a book when he visited him.
A mixed feeling for some supporters
This departure, a moment of joy for many Ivorians, but which is not a celebration for one of his faithful René Titilo, representative of
the FPI party
in the Benelux. For him, the history of the former president is “
dramatic
”.
Arrested on April 11, 2011
, he was later transferred to the ICC. "
Kidnapped
», Adds this political analyst. Acquitted on January 15, 2019, he joined his partner Nady Bamba in Brussels in February. This is done within the framework of his conditional release accompanied by obligations: not to move outside the municipality in which he resides unless he is expressly authorized to do so by the Chamber, to hand over to the ICC all of their identity documents, present themselves each week to the Belgian authorities, refrain from any public statement on the case, etc. "
He couldn't even go get a box of matches,"
protests René Titilo.
Even in Belgium he was in prison.
The lawyer for the former president nuance, ensuring in particular that the question of the weekly score had been quickly adapted because the logistics and the security - among others - were complicated to ensure.
A mixed feeling shared by this political analyst.
“
Ten years have passed, justice has not worked,” he
believes.
The minimum conditions of treatment due to his rank as former head of state were not respected.
Even at the ICC he was treated like a common thug.
"Finally this departure is the culmination of a complete process his lawyer:"
It is 10 years of legal combat where we began by presenting him as one of the worst dictators that Africa has known.
And after 10 years, it is the joy to see this man rehabilitated.
"
On March 31, 2021,
the ICC Appeals Chamber confirms the
final
acquittal
of Laurent Gbagbo, his travel restrictions are completely removed.
Very quickly, the question of the return and its organization was raised.
Less than three months later, he flew to Abidjan.
If President Gbagbo wrote a lot during his imprisonment in The Hague, specifies one of his former advisers, it is not yet time to publish, he assures.
A new chapter remains to be written.
► To read also:
Ivory Coast: everything you need to know about the return of Laurent Gbagbo
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