The state prosecutor informed that Ali Bongo Ondima’s son and several allies of the ousted Gabon leader have been charged with high treason, corruption, and drug traffic charges.
The son of Ali Bongo Ondimba and several allies of the ousted Gabon president have been charged with high treason and corruption and placed in custody, the state prosecutor told AFP Wednesday.
Bongo’s eldest son Noureddin Bongo Valentin and former presidential spokesman Jessye Ella Ekogha, as well as four others close to the deposed leader, “have been charged and placed in provisional detention” on Tuesday, said Libreville prosecutor Andre-Patrick Roponat.
They face a range of charges, including high treason against state institutions, massive misappropriation of public funds, forgery of the president’s signature, corruption, and drug trafficking.
Bongo, 64, who had ruled the oil-rich central African country since 2009, was ousted by military leaders on August 30, moments after being proclaimed the winner in a presidential election.
The result was branded a fraud by the opposition and the military coup leaders, who have also accused his regime of widespread corruption and bad governance.
On the same day as the coup, soldiers arrested one of Bongo’s sons, five senior cabinet officials, and his wife, Sylvia Bongo Valentin.
National TV showed rolling images of those arrested in front of suitcases filled with cash allegedly seized from their homes.
Sylvia Bongo Valentin is under house arrest in the capital Libreville “for her protection,” according to authorities. Her lawyers say she is being held “arbitrarily.”
Bongo, who was under house arrest for several days after the coup, is “free to move around” and go abroad, the country’s new military ruler, General Brice Oligui Nguema, said on September 6th.
A Paris-based legal source has told AFP that ten of Omar Bongo’s 54 children have been charged with allegedly concealing the misappropriation of public funds.
As a sitting head of state, Ali Bongo had immunity.
Miroslava Salazar, with AFP
