schema:articleBody
| - Key dates in the life of former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo, who is to return home on Thursday after being acquitted of crimes against humanity in The Hague. - May 31, 1945: Born in the south-central Ivory Coast region of Gagnoa, to the Bete ethnic group. Educated in a Christian seminary. - 1971: Becomes a history professor. Emerges as a critic of Ivory Coast's post-independence single-party system. He is imprisoned for almost two years for "subversive" teaching. - 1982: Founds the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) to fight one-party rule. Goes into exile in France. - 1988: Returns to take part in the FPI party congress. - 1990: Is the sole opposition candidate at presidential elections against Felix Houphouet-Boigny, the father of Ivory Coast's independence, after a multiparty system is introduced. - October 26, 2000: Elected president. - September 2002: Renegade soldiers try to oust Gbagbo. Rebels take over the north of the country but the government retains control of the south. - 2005: The presidential election is postponed for the first of six times before finally being held in 2010. - 2007: Gbagbo and northern rebel chief Guillaume Soro sign an agreement to end the crisis. Gbagbo appoints Soro as prime minister. - November 2010: A presidential election is finally held, but Gbagbo refuses to accept the electoral commission's ruling that he lost to his rival Alassane Ouattara. - April 11, 2011: Gbagbo is arrested in Abidjan after more than four months of crisis in which more than 3,000 people die. - November 30, 2011: He is transferred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. - January 15, 2019: Acquitted by the ICC on charges of crimes against humanity. Freed on strict conditions in February pending a prosecution appeal. He lives in Belgium. - September 14, 2020: Ahead of the presidential election in October, Ivory Coast's constitutional court rejects Gbagbo's candidacy. - March 31, 2021: The ICC confirms his acquittal. - June 17, 2021: Scheduled return to Ivory Coast. ang/jmy/fg/dl
|