Ivory Coast prosecutors on Wednesday urged a guilty verdict and life in prison for a former warlord on trial for crimes against humanity over 2011 massacres during a post-election crisis.
Amade Oueremi has been on trial in Abidjan on 24 counts including mass killings, rape and inhumane and degrading treatment in the western Ivory Coast city of Duekoue, which saw a series of massacres on March 28-29, 2011.
The Red Cross says 817 people were killed in one day in Duekoue while the UN puts the toll at 300, figures that were part of the trial.
The verdict is expected on Thursday.
Oueremi's lawyer said he did not deny the massacres, but that he was under the command of rebel chiefs.
The lawyer, Roseline Aka Serikpa, called the trial a "sorry spectacle at a court that wants to put the blame on one man only."
Ivory Coast's cocoa-producing western region was the worst-hit during the 2010-11 post-election crisis.
Then president Laurent Gbagbo was eventually forced out of office after refusing to accept defeat by the current president, Alassane Ouattara.
The months-long conflict claimed some 3,000 lives and split the country along north-south lines.
Oueremi, 57, was head of a militia that fought alongside pro-Ouattara rebels against rival groups and forces loyal to Gbagbo, which have also been accused of atrocities.
According to the UN and other international organisations, the capture of Duekoue in March 2011 by pro-Ouattara fighters was accompanied by large-scale massacres.
The trial began on March 24 and has notably featured testimony from women who spoke of their husbands and other relatives being brutally killed in front of them.