The first former head of state to stand trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC), Ivory Coast’s Laurent Gbagbo, has left the building in The Hague a free man.
His supporters gathered on the grass outside, jubilant that after a decade, Mr Gbagbo and his co-accused Charles Ble Goude can return home to Ivory Coast.
The appeals judges rejected all of the prosecutor’s arguments against the original acquittal, and agreed that the evidence was extremely weak, raising questions about how this trial went as far as it did.
This case was seen as a test of the institution’s ability to handle these high profile figures.
Whenever a case collapses at the ICC, it damages the perception of the court as a credible tool of international justice.