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LequteMan
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According to the National News Agency, the Ivorian Government has granted presidential pardon to 3,000 people, imprisoned for various criminal offences in the country.
The government’s spokesman, Mr Bruno Kone, revealed this in a statement on Saturday after an extra-ordinary cabinet meeting in Abidjan.
The statement said the pardon did not include political detainees and prisoners.
It explained that the cabinet took a decision to refuse the extradition of Simone, wife of former President Laurent Gbagbo to the Hague, adding that she would be given a fair trial in the now rehabilitated Ivorian courts.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) had issued a warrant of arrest on Simone on Feb. 29 last year.
She had been in detention in Odienné, North-West of Cote d’Ivoire.
Kone said that the return of peace had necessitated the government’s decision not to extradite Simone to the Hague for trial.
The government’s long delay in making official a statement concerning the ICC’s warrant of arrest on Simone had raised series of reactions in the West African country.
The arrest of the former Ivorian first family on April 11, 2011, officially ended the country’s post-election crisis.
Gbagbo, Simone and his son, Michel, were arrested, following the violence that erupted, due to a disputed presidential election between him and President Alassane Ouattara.
Michel was among 14 supporters of the former president, granted provisional release by the Ivorian judiciary last month.
The Ivorian post-election crisis is officially reported to have caused the death of some 3,000 people.