Supporters of former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo gathered to call for his release Sunday, almost five months after his arrest during the country's bloody post election crisis.
Hundreds of followers of Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party gathered in the Koumassi district of the economic capital Abidjan to lobby for his freedom.
"We need to break the fear amongst us," said Jules Yao Yao, an organiser of the first public demonstration by Gbagbo supporters since the former strongman's capture.
"We call on the head of state Alassane Ouattara to free Gbabgo, because without him there is no point in a reconciliation in Ivory Coast," said Yao Yao, a member of the FPI's executive.
Asked about rumours of instability affecting the current regime, he said the party would only seek power by the ballot box.
"We prefer the force of arguments to the argument of force," he said.
Gbagbo was arrested on April 11 by pro-Ouattara forces aided by France and the UN after a four-month conflict sparked by his refusal to cede power following last November's election.
He and his wife Simone, in detention in the north of the country, were last month charged with economic crimes following the unrest during which an estimated 3,000 people died.
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