Ivory Coast’s government said Thursday former prime minister Guillaume Soro, who recently ended a self-imposed exile of four years, could return home but that the justice system would rule on the state of outstanding convictions.
Soro, sentenced to life in prison for undermining national security in 2021, returned to Africa in early November but has yet to re-enter his homeland, making stop-offs in Niger and Burkina Faso having spent his exile in France, Belgium and Dubai.
“Guillaume Soro can return when he likes — the country is indeed open,” spokesman Amadou Coulibaly said following a cabinet meeting.
But he added that any judicial claim against Soro will be “dealt with by our country’s judicial administration”.
“It is for it to decide (when) it executes a decision which it has freely taken,” said Coulibaly.
The former Ivorian prime minister was previously right-hand man to President Alassane Ouattara. But the pair fell out in 2019, with the head of state accusing him of fomenting a “civilian and military insurrection”.
He was handed a 20-year jail term in 2020 in absentia after being convicted of embezzlement, then given a life ter m a year later for undermining national security.
“All those who wanted to return have returned and we see them in the country, sometimes even heading up political meetings,” Coulibaly said, adding that President Ouattara had put “means” in place “so that all those who had self-exiled can return”.
