[PULSE.NG] Gabon's Judges had earlier ordered Gbagbo and his right-hand man Charles Ble Goude to be freed after clearing them of any role in a wave of post-electoral violence in 2010-2011 that killed 3,000 people.
The trial judges on Wednesday rejected a bid by the prosecution to keep the former strongman, 73, and his ex-youth chief in detention pending an overall appeal against the decision to acquit them.
But in a fresh legal twist, an appeals chamber late on Wednesday separately said that the order for their release must be put on hold while they deal with a separate appeal by prosecutors against the two men being freed.