Gbagbo was charged on Thursday, public prosecutor Simplice Kouadio Koffi told a media conference, and his wife on Tuesday and both were moved from house arrest in the north of the country to jail.
Gbagbo’s spokesman called the move “illegal”.
President Alassane Ouattara’s government is closing the net around members of the former regime, who are suspected of using violence against civilians seen as pro-Ouattara during and after a disputed November election, and of looting the treasury to remain in power despite harsh Western sanctions.
“The pre-trial judge has just called me to say he has finished charging Mr Gbagbo,” Koffi said. “And last Tuesday, Mrs Gbagbo was charged and moved into preventative detention.”
Ivorian authorities charged 57 soldiers from Gbagbo’s regime last Thursday with crimes ranging from murder and kidnapping to attacking state security and buying illegal arms.
The former head of Gbagbo’s party, Pascal Affi N’Guessan, and 11 others were charged with attacking state security last week also with backing his refusal to concede the poll, which tipped the country back into civil war.
Gbagbo was almost universally condemned by Western powers and African leaders for rejecting U.N. certified results showing he had lost the election to Ouattara last November.