Gbagbo’s wife, Simone, jailed for 20 years

Simone Gbagbo, wife of former Cote d’Ivoire president, has been sentenced by an Ivoirian court to 20 years in prison, for her part in the violence that followed the country’s 2010 presidential election.

More that 3,000 died after Gbagbo, whose tenure had expired since 2005 but postponed election many times, lost the 2010 election to Alassane Ouattara but refused to concede defeat or give  up power.

After the first round of election in 2010, Gbagbo and Ouattara faced off in November for the second round, which the Ivorian Election Commission (CEI) declared that the opposition candidate won with 54.1% of the vote.

But Gbagbo claimed that the election was fraudulent and ordered the annulment of votes from nine regions, although CEI and international election observers maintained that it was free and fair.

Ouattara’s supporters rebelled and Gbagbo ordered a military crackdown on the people that included closure of the borders and a ban on foreign news organisations from broadcasting from within the country.

Simone’s prosecutors, who charged her with undermining state security, disturbing public order and organising armed gangs, demanded a 10-year prison sentence, but the court unanimously doubled the sentence – an action that her daughter, Marie Antoinette Singleton, finds unfair and a sign of “political justice”.

“Why would you want to double it? It’s not about justice, it’s about getting rid of political adversaries,” Singleton told BBC.

“If we say that something wrong happened, it happened on both sides. Nobody looked into bringing all responsible parties to trial.”

Simone’s lawyer has already said the sentence would be appealed.

Her husband, Gbagbo, is still awaiting trial at the International Criminal Court, for four charges including murder, rape and persecution.

Both of them were arrested in Abidjan in 2011 after troops stormed a bunker where they had taken refuge.

The ICC had issued an arrest warrant for Simone Gbagbo too, but this was dismissed by the Ivorian government.