The former Ivorian head of state could soon return to Abidjan. After several months of waiting, Laurent Gbagbo recovered his two passports on Friday: a regular and a diplomatic one. Since his arrest in April 2011, Laurent Gbagbo no longer had a travel document.
On Friday morning at 11 o’clock in a large hotel on Avenue Louise in Brussels, the former Ivorian president received a regular passport and a diplomatic passport by two Ivorian diplomats: a special envoy from Abidjan, the Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ivorian Ambassador to Belgium.
The former Ivorian president had in July last year initiated administrative proceedings for these two formulas. His entourage has repeatedly expressed outrage over the delays in issuing his passport. Things seem to have accelerated last week: a mobile team from the Foreign Ministry has moved to Brussels to hire several diplomats and former President Laurent Gbagbo. Again, this took place in a hotel in Brussels: fingerprints, photos and the submission of documents that were useful for this process.
Towards a return at the end of the month
On Friday morning, Laurent Gbagbo was measured by the voice of his lawyer Me Habiba Touré: getting his passport is an “epiphenomenon”, but the former president “welcomes the action taken” by the Ivorian authorities, it said in a statement. An act that goes in the “feeling of appeasement”. The diplomatic passport can only be issued with the express consent of the Ivorian head of state Alassane Ouattara.
With his passport in his pocket, Laurent Gbagbo intends to return to the Ivory Coast in December. In this capacity, he appointed Assoa Adou, the general secretary of his party, Front populaire ivoirien (FPI), “to approach the competent authorities to organize his return to peace in accordance with his status as former president of the republic”, we read in this press release .
At the same time, Laurent Gbagbo continues to demand the liberation of political leaders and civil society who was arrested after the October 31 presidential election. “We cannot imprison leaders because they have asserted their right to say no to an unconstitutional third term,” he further condemned in a press release. Through his lawyer’s voice, Laurent Gbagbo demands that they be released and “the safe return of the exiles” in order to restore a climate of trust.
