Former Ivory Coast first lady Simone Gbagbo is one of 800 prisoners who were granted amnesty Monday by President Alassane Ouattara for offenses related to the brief but deadly civil war in 2011.
Simone Gbagbo was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2015 after she was convicted on a charge of endangering state security for her role in the violence. She was tried and acquitted last year on a charge of crimes against humanity. Prosecutors accused her of leading a cell that carried out violent reprisals against opponents of her husband, then-President Laurent Gbagbo, including supplying it with weapons and attack helicopters.
About 3,000 people were killed in the West African nation in 2011 after Laurent Gbagbo refused to accept his loss to Ouattara in elections held the previous November. Gbagbo was later captured and turned over to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where he is on trial for crimes against humanity.
SOURCE: VOA NEWS
