Ferdinand Marcos was overthrown in 1986

She faces four counts of holding Swiss bank accounts containing millions of illegally-acquired dollars under the names of several foundations.

The charges are part of a wider case alleging the Marcoses plundered the nation's economy between 1968 and 1986, when Mr Marcos was in power.

The Marcos family is also under investigation for human rights abuses.

But when the BBC's East Asia Today put it to Mrs Marcos on Tuesday that there was hard documentary evidence against her, she denied the charges.

"Absolutely not," she said. "Sixteen years have passed, this is beyond restrictive time."

She said there was no proof that she had stolen a single dollar.

Conviction quashed

The court in Sandiganbayan said the accounts in question were set up "for the benefit of the accused and her late husband, then-president Ferdinand Marcos and their children, with monies amounting to $231,366,894 as of 31 December, 1989".

Mrs Marcos was found guilty on corruption charges in the mid-1990s and sentenced to a minimum of 12 years in prison, but the conviction was overturned on appeal.

The Marcoses were overthrown in a popular revolt in 1986 and fled to Hawaii, where Ferdinand Marcos died three years later.

Mrs Marcos returned to the Philippines in 1991 when a ban against her was dropped.