2023-09-20 10:26:37
Two weeks after the military putsch in Gabon which overthrew President Ali Bongo Ondimba, his son and several close to the cabinet of the former head of state were incarcerated and indicted on Tuesday notably for “high treason” and “active corruption,” the Libreville prosecutor announced to AFP this Wednesday, September 20.
Noureddin Bongo Valentin, Ali Bongo’s eldest son, Jessye Ella Ekogha, former presidential spokesperson, as well as four other people were “indicted on Tuesday and placed in pre-trial detention”, declared André-Patrick Roponat, prosecutor from Libreville, the capital of Gabon.
The regime accused of “massive embezzlement” of public funds
On August 30, less than an hour after the announcement in the middle of the night of the re-election of Ali Bongo, in power since 2009 and accused of massive fraud, the military, led by General Brice Oligui Nguema, overthrew him, notably accusing his regime of “massive embezzlement” of public funds.
The same day of the coup, the military arrested one of the sons of the deposed head of state, as well as five other young senior officials in the cabinet of the ex-president and his wife Sylvia Bongo Valentin. The searches at their homes, broadcast extensively by state television, showed them at the feet of trunks, suitcases and bags overflowing with wads of bank notes.
Sylvia Bongo Valentin is under house arrest in Libreville “for her protection” according to the presidency, “arbitrarily detained” according to her lawyers. Ali Bongo, first under house arrest in Libreville for a few days after the putsch, is “free to move” and has the possibility of “going abroad”, General Oligui announced on September 6.
#Gabon #son #Ali #Bongo #relatives #deposed #president #imprisoned