One of Africa's most brutal dictators, accused of cannibalism and feeding his opponents to animals, has received a posthumous pardon from his country. Jean-Bédel Bokassa was the self-crowned emperor of the Central African Republic (CAR) until he was ousted in 1979. He fathered 62 children and his coronation, based on that of Napoleon, cost his country's entire GDP. He was rehabilitated this week by the CAR's president, François Bozizé, who said Bokassa had . The president said the man who proclaimed himself Emperor Bokassa I had "given a great deal for humanity" and would have "all his rights" returned, the BBC reported.

"This rehabilitation of rights erases penal condemnations, particularly fines and legal costs, and stops any future incapacities that result from them," said a presidential decree issued to mark the CAR's 50th anniversary of independence from France.

Bokassa was "a son of the nation recognised by all as a great builder", the president added. "He built the country but we have destroyed what he built."

Bozizé, who seized power in a coup in 2003, awarded Bokassa's widow, Catherine, a state medal of honour. Bokassa's children said they would set up a fund to compensate victims of his tyranny.

The CAR's decision took Africa experts by surprise. Richard Dowden, director of the Royal African Society, said: "To celebrate someone who came to power in a coup and ruled so brutally is not what you expect in a democracy."

He added: " Elections in the CAR have been postponed and postponed. Presumably François Bozizé is trying to shore up support and he needs to get the family on board. But that's just speculation."

Dowden recalled seeing Bokassa on a visit to Uganda. "He had come to meet Idi Amin. He was a fanatical collector of medals, but so was Amin, and Amin had the bigger chest so he could wear more medals."

Backed by France, Bokassa came to power in a coup in 1965 and ruled with an iron fist, torturing and killing political rivals and cutting off the ears of thieves. Accusations of cannibalism were widespread but unproven, triggered by photographs in Paris-Match magazine that apparently showed a fridge containing the bodies of schoolchildren. It was also claimed his political rivals were cooked and served to visiting foreign dignitaries or fed to lions and crocodiles in his personal zoo.

Bokassa named himself emperor in 1976 and organised a lavish coronation, costing tens of millions of dollars, in which he wore costumes styled on Napoleon's and rode in a carriage flanked by soldiers dressed as 19th-century French cavalrymen. He was overthrown three years later after his guards killed scores of schoolchildren who were demonstrating in the capital, Bangui.

He was sentenced to death for assassinations, concealing corpses and embezzlement, later commuted to a prison sentence. He was released in 1993 by President André Kolingba.

Bokassa ended his days as a recluse in his villa in Bangui and died of a heart attack in 1996, aged 75. His once opulent palace – in which he was said to have slept surrounded by gold and diamonds – fell into ruin, his dozens of children living there in rags.

Despite Bokassa's egregious crimes, the CAR has witnessed a movement to rehabilitate him, a trend compared to some Russians' nostalgia for the days of Stalin.