Former Ivory Coast first lady Simone Gbagbo will go on trial in Abidjan on April 25 accused of crimes against humanity, defence lawyer Mathurin Dirabou has told AFP.
Nicknamed the "Iron Lady", the 66-year-old had already been sentenced to 20 years in jail last year for "attacking state authority" for her role in violence which followed elections in 2010 which her husband Laurent Gbagbo lost.
Gbagbo is the subject of a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague which accuses her of a key role in the post-election violence which left more than 3,000 people dead.
However, the government refused to transfer her and instead, she was judged by an Ivorian court, with her sentence handed down in March last year.
Her husband went on trial at the ICC in January along with his former militia chief as the court investigates the post-election violence.
Despite ICC requests to hand her over to stand trial alongside her husband, President Alassane Ouattara in February declined to send "any more Ivorians" to the ICC, insisting his country's judicial system was capable of dispensing justice.
A senior magistrate who requested anonymity told AFP that the path to try her had effectively been cleared following a prosecution recommendation to that effect in January.
The magistrate indicated that "the misdeeds for which she is being judged in Abidjan are the same as for the ICC, whose principle is either that you judge the person or you hand her over to us".
None of Ouattara's supporters have been charged by the ICC so far, prompting accusations by Gbagbo's camp of "victor's justice" -- a view the president dismisses.
