ABIDJAN – (AFP) – Ivory Coast ex-president Laurent Gbagbo and his wife Simone have been charged with “economic crimes” and placed under preventative detention, the public prosecutor announced Thursday.

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