The International Criminal Court has dropped its arrest warrant for Ivory Coast's former first lady Simone Gbagbo over post-election violence that killed thousands in 2010-2011, according to a decision made public Thursday.
Simone Gbagbo faced charges of crimes against humanity -- including murder, rape, inhuman acts and persecution -- following her husband's refusal to hand over power to Alassane Ouattara, who won a 2010 election.
Over 3,000 people died in the unrest.
"The chamber considers it appropriate to decide that the warrant of arrest for Simone Gbagbo shall cease to have effect," the court said in a seven-page ruling seen by AFP.
"Good news for Madame Simone Gbagbo... she can now travel freely throughout the world," her lawyer Ange Rodrigue Dadje said in a statement sent to AFP.
In March, the ICC acquitted Laurent Gbagbo of crimes against humanity and he returned to Ivory Coast on June 17, after 10 years behind bars in The Hague, where the ICC is based, and then in Belgium.
Simone Gbagbo was not handed over to the ICC, but an Ivorian court sentenced her to 20 years in prison in 2015 for undermining state security.
She was freed on August 8, 2018 following a presidential amnesty.
