THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- International Criminal Court judges said Wednesday that former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo and a former government minister should be released immediately following their acquittal on charges of involvement in deadly post-election violence in 2010.
Prosecutors have said they will appeal the acquittals once judges issue their written majority decision on Gbagbo and Charles Ble Goude and asked judges not to release the men.
But Presiding Judge Cuno Tarfusser said a majority of the three-judge panel rejected the prosecution request, clearing the way for the men to be released once logistical and diplomatic formalities are completed.
"Both Mr. Gbagbo and Mr. Ble Goude have recognized the court's jurisdiction and have undertaken to return to the court if and when their presence is required," Tarfusser said.
Judges first ordered the men's release Tuesday after acquitting them on charges of crimes against humanity including murder, rape and persecution.
Prosecutors can appeal Wednesday's decision, potentially holding up the men's release.
Tarfusser said the time required to work out the logistics of freeing Gbagbo and Ble Goude should give prosecutors time to ask the court's appeals chamber to issue a stay of the release order.
Gbagbo was the first former president to go on trial at the global court and his case was seen as a milestone in efforts to bring to justice the highest-ranking leaders accused of atrocities.
More than 3,000 people were killed in late 2010 and early 2011 in violence that erupted after Gbagbo refused to accept defeat by his rival and current Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara.
A small group of supporters of the two men celebrated outside the court after the ruling.
At a hearing Wednesday morning, defence lawyers said the time had come to let them go, with no strings attached.
"Laurent Gbagbo is no longer an accused person, Laurent Gbagbo has been acquitted," said the former president's lawyer Emmanuel Altit.
Ble Goude's lawyer Geert-Jan Knoops agreed.
"These two individuals are acquitted," he told judges. "They should be given back their natural right to freedom."
Gbagbo has been in the court's custody since November 2011 and Ble Goude since March 2014.
Their trial, which had been underway for nearly three years, was brought to an abrupt halt Tuesday when two of the three judges hearing the case ruled that prosecutors had not presented enough evidence to support their charges.
Marie-Evelyne Petrus Barry of rights group Amnesty International called the acquittals "a crushing disappointment to victims of post-election violence" in Ivory Coast.
