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Former Ivory Coast President, Laurent Gbagbo, was released on bail after being acquitted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for crimes against humanity, the court said Tuesday.
Belgium said on Saturday that it had agreed in principle to welcome Gbagbo pending a possible appeal from the prosecutor against his acquittal, but that the latest arrangements were underway.
The 73-year-old former strongman and his badistant Charles Blé Goudé have been living in a secret location since Friday when the Hague tribunal released them from detention.
"Mr Gbagbo is now released under certain conditions in Belgium," said a spokeswoman for the ICC, without giving further details.
ICC judges acquitted Gbagbo and Blé Goudé on January 15 of charges stemming from a wave of violence after disputed elections in this West African country in 2010.
About 3000 people were killed in the violence. Gbagbo has spent seven years behind bars and has been on trial since 2016.
The delay in Gbagbo's release is explained by the fact that prosecutors have said he should be kept in custody pending a possible appeal against his acquittal.
The release conditions include that Belgium will guarantee that Gbagbo will return to the ICC if necessary.
He must also hand over his travel documents, report to the authorities each week, avoid contacting witnesses in Côte d'Ivoire and refrain from making public statements about the case, announced Friday court documents.
Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said on Saturday that there had been "a court request to host Mr Gbagbo simply because he has family in Belgium: his second woman, a child in Brussels ".
"We concluded that he was entitled to stay in Belgium while he was on parole," he said, adding, "There will be surveillance."
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