Simone Ehivet Gbagbo is an Ivorian politician best known as the wife of former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo.
Simone Gbagbo was born in 1949 in Moossou, Grand-Bassam to Jean Ehivet, a local police officer, and Marie Djaha. Simone Gbagbo is a historian who has a third cycle doctorate in Oral Literature. Simone Gbagbo has also worked in applied linguistics as a Marxist labor union leader.
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In the 1970’s, Simone Gbagbo was an active trades union militant and as a result, she was imprisoned several times during the struggle for multi-party elections. During Simone Gbagbo’s time as a teacher, she participated in the teachers’ strike movement of 1982.
Simone Gbagbo FPI
Simone and Laurent Gbabgo co-founded a clandestine political group that later became known as the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI).
Following the introduction of multiparty elections, Simone and Laurent Gbagbo were arrested for allegedly inciting violence in February 1992 and they spent six months in prison.
In 1996, Simone Gbagbo became an FPI Deputy from Abobo. In the December 2000 parliamentary election, Simone Gbagbo was re-elected to the National Assembly as an FPI Deputy from Abobo.
Simone Gbagbo is also the President of the FPI Parliamentary Group and during the FPI’s Third Extraordinary Congress, held from 20 to 22 July 2001, she was elected as the Second Vice-President of the FPI.
Simone Gbagbo Kieffer Death
In July 2008, Simone Gbagbo was called for questioning by a French investigative judge who was examining the April 2004 disappearance and presumed death in Abidjan of French-Canadian journalist Guy-Andre Kieffer.
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Prior to Kieffer’s disappearance, he was researching a story on political corruption and government involvement in the Ivorian Cocoa industry. Kieffer was last seen on the way to a meeting with the brother-in-law of Simone Gbagbo, Michel Legré.
In 2004, Michel Legre was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and murder, but was provisionally released in 2005 and has since fled the country—or is in a location which is not yet known.
The driver of Jean-Tony Oulaï a former member of the Ivorian Secret Services, Berté Seydou as well as Mr Kieffer’s brother, have alleged that Simone Gbagbo and former Ivorian Minister of Planning and Development Paul-Antoine Bohoun Bouabre have knowledge of the events surrounding Mr Kieffer’s death, and that Jean-Tony Oulaï is responsible.
However, Simone Gbagbo filed a defamation lawsuit against Jean-Tony Oulaï regarding his charges against her.
Simone Gbagbo Children
Simone Gbagbo has five children. However, only the last two of the five children are for her husband Laurent Gbagbo.
Simone Gbagbo Net Worth
Authorities in Switzerland have reported that they have frozen assets worth over $81 million belonging to Simone and Laurent Gbagbo.
Simone Gbagbo Jail
In March 2015, Simone Gbagbo was sentenced to 20 years in jail for her role in the violence that followed the 2010 elections. More than 3,000 people died in the violence that followed the presidential poll after the ex-leader refused to accept defeat to Alassane Ouattara.
Simone and Laurent Gbagbo were arrested in 2011 after troops stormed a bunker where the pair had taken refuge in the main city, Abidjan.
Source: abtc.ng