Ex first lady Simone Gbagbo pleads not guilty
Former First Lady of Ivory Coast, Simone Gbagbo rejected charges of rebellion in her first public statements at a trial over her role in a conflict that erupted after a contested 2010 election.
She and 82 fellow defendants are accused of playing roles in a violence that broke out in Abidjan, which killed about 3,000 people when Laurent Gbagbo refused to admit defeat in the December 2010 election. ”I reject these charges” Simone said in an Abidjan court where she is being tried. Her husband, Laurent, has being held at the ICC, where he has been charged with crimes against humanity during the short war that happened in 2011.
The short war broke out in the world’s top cocoa grower when Gbagbo and his supporters rejected UN – backed election results that Ouattara had won. The Gbagbos were eventually arrested in a bunker in April 2011, five months after elections following a military assault supported by UN and French troops….
