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The 76-year-old arrives in Abidjan after ICC judges earlier this year upheld his 2019 acquittal on charges related to 2011 post-election violence.
The plane carrying Ivory Coast’s former President Laurent Gbagbo has landed in the country’s economic hub, Abidjan.
The 76-year-old’s arrival on Thursday on a commercial flight from Brussels would mark his first trip back home since his arrest nearly 10 years ago and subsequent transfer to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Gbagbo, who was in power since 2000, was sent to The Hague-based court in 2011 after some 3,000 people were killed in a months-long conflict that followed his refusal to accept electoral defeat at the hands of incumbent President Alassane Ouattara.
He was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity but was acquitted by the ICC in 2019. Judges upheld the ruling earlier this year, paving the way for his return on Thursday.
Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris, reporting from the airport in Abidjan, said the situation in the city was “quite tense” in the hours before his arrival as many Gbagbo supporters tried to approach the site.
“The police barricaded the entire area close to the airport, and there were some incidents where they used tear gas to disperse crowds,” he said.
