Ivory Coast former President Laurent Gbagbo and his wife Simone have been charged with “economic crimes” and placed under preventative detention, the public prosecutor announced yesterday.

Mr Gbagbo was charged yesterday evening with “economic crimes (including) aggrav-ated theft, attacks on the national economy, embezzlement of public funds, pillage”, prosecutor Simplice Kouadio Koffi told reporters, shortly after announcing similar charges against Mr Gbagbo’s wife.

Mr Gbagbo and his wife were already under house arrest, he in Korhogo and she in Odienne, both northern cities.

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