Ivory Coast's former first lady,
Simone Gbagbo, went on trial on Tuesday, accused of crimes
against humanity and war crimes for her alleged role in a 2011
civil war.
The court case at home came after the government rejected
her extradition to international court in The Hague.
Her husband, ex-president Laurent Gbagbo, is already before
the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges linked to the
brief conflict, which was sparked by his refusal to accept
defeat to Alassane Ouattara in a run-off election in late 2010.
Around 3,000 people died in the violence.
Flanked by policemen, Simone Gbagbo, a key figure in her
husband's regime, greeted several dozen cheering supporters
gathered at the entrance of the court in the commercial capital
Abidjan with waves and smiles.
The prosecution alleges she was part of an inner circle of
her husband's key backers that planned violence against
Ouattara's supporters as a means of maintaining Gbagbo in power.
The trial opens just by a special tribunal in Senegal for
ordering the killing and torture of thousands of political
opponents during his eight-year rule.
The success of that trial is likely to bolster African
leaders, who have grown increasingly hostile towards the ICC and
have called for the continent to take justice into its own
hands.
Having emerged as the victor of both the polls and the war,
Ouattara, now president, has refused to honour an ICC warrant
for Simone, claiming that the Ivorian justice system is now
capable of judging her.
In an earlier trial, she was convicted in March 2015 of
offences against the state and given 20 years in prison, a
sentence that was upheld on appeal this month.
However, despite the conviction, rights campaigners and
observers criticised the trial for failing to provide evidence
linking her and other political leaders to violence by their
supporters.
Human rights groups including the International Federation
for Human Rights, which was representing victims in the domestic
case against Simone Gbagbo, announced this week that it was
withdrawing its participation in the war crimes trial.
They claimed the prosecution's investigation had been rushed
in order to respond to the ICC warrant and the trial would not
give victims a full picture of the Gbagbo administration's
orchestration of the post-election violence.
