THE CHARGES ARE LINKED TO POST-ELECTORAL VIOLENCE THAT ERUPTED IN THE COUNTRY IN 2010 AFTER HER HUSBAND, LAURENT GBAGBO, REJECTED THE RESULTS OF A PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN WHICH HIS RIVAL, ALASSANE OUATTARA, WAS DECLARED WINNER
Former First Lady Simone Gbagbo, known as the Ivory Coast’s “Iron Lady,” has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after a local court found her guilty of “endangering national security.”
The Abidjan Court of Assizes also ordered the former first lady to be deprived of her civil rights for a ten-year period, an Anadolu Agency correspondent reported.
The charges are linked to post-electoral violence that erupted in the country in 2010 after the first lady’s husband, Laurent Gbagbo, rejected the results of a presidential election in which his rival, Alassane Ouattara, was declared winner.
According to the UN, more than 3,000 people were killed in the ensuing violence.
Simone Gbagbo was tried for her role in the crisis, with prosecutors accusing her of “endangering national security and disturbing public peace.” Simone is also wanted by the International Criminal Court, although the Ivorian government has refused to hand her over.
Following delivery of the verdict late Monday, Gbagbo’s lawyer, Dirabou Mathurin Alberic, told reporters that he planned to appeal the jail sentence.
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