The lawyers of Sylvia Bongo Ondimba, Franco-Gabonese wife of President Ali Bongo Ondimba, placed under house arrest by soldiers who dismissed him after a coup on Wednesday, filed a complaint in France on Friday, September 1 for arbitrary detention, they announced to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“Mrs. Valentin, Bongo’s wife, has been deprived of her freedom since the putsch of August 30, 2023, as has her youngest son Jalil”, while another son, Noureddin Bongo Valentin, “is imprisoned in a secret place”, s worry François Zimeray and Jessica Finelle in a press release.

Until then, the soldiers have said nothing about the fate of Ms. Bongo, married to Ali Bongo since 1989 and with whom she had four children. Me Zimeray told AFP that his client is “detained in an undetermined place in Gabon, which could be his residence”. “No political consideration justifies this violence and this secrecy outside any legal framework, we are concerned for their health and safety”, insist the two councils, which “demand” the authorization of “consular visits for the family and especially for Nourredin Bongo Valentin, who could be the victim of enforced disappearance”.

The French nationality of Ms. Bongo gives jurisdiction to the French courts for a possible investigation into these facts. “This procedure could lead to the issuance of an international arrest warrant against the perpetrators of these acts, who incur life imprisonment”, hope the counsel.

Suspicions of corruption

In a speech broadcast in full Friday on state television channels, General Brice Oligui Nguema, Gabon’s new strongman, threatened entrepreneurs involved in corruption, endemic in this country, and demanded of them “patriotism” and “commitment” to the “development of the country”. Recent audits have shown that “the companies have overcharged and the services will reverse these investigations so that this overcharging goes back to the state”, he declared in a firm tone and with a dark look in front of more than two hundred chiefs Gabonese businessmen “summoned” Thursday to the presidency of the Republic.

At the same time, television channels were looping images showing Noureddin Bongo Valentin and other former senior young officials of the presidential cabinet arrested on Thursday, the day of the putsch, in front of trunks, suitcases and bags filled with billions of CFA francs which would have been seized from their homes.

Mr. Bongo Valentin and the six former senior officials of the president’s cabinet and his all-powerful Gabonese Democratic Party arrested are notably accused by the military of “massive embezzlement of public funds”, “falsification of the signature of the President of the Republic” and “high treason”.

According to Ms. Bongo’s lawyers, “Nourredin Bongo Valentin is incarcerated in an undisclosed location. Those around suspect the putschists of fabricating so-called evidence aimed at discrediting the family members and legitimizing their arrest.”