Three weeks after the coup d’état which ousted Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba from power, one of his sons and people close to the cabinet of the deposed head of state were indicted and imprisoned in particular for “corruption”.
Ten people were charged on Tuesday with, among other things, “corruption”, “embezzlement of public funds”, and ten other charges, Libreville prosecutor André Patrick Roponat said at a press conference on Wednesday, without providing details. the charges against each accused, but specifying that seven of them had been placed under arrest warrant.
Questioned by AFP, he however confirmed that Noureddin Bongo Valentin, Ali Bongo’s eldest son, and Jessye Ella Ekogha, the former presidential spokesperson, “were indicted in particular for corruption on Tuesday and placed in pre-trial detention.
They were arrested on the day of the coup with four other young senior officials in the cabinet of ex-president Ali Bongo and his wife Sylvia Bongo Valentin, and were suspected in particular of “high treason”. However, this charge was not retained, a source close to the prosecution told AFP.
When asked, Noureddin Bongo Valentin’s lawyer did not respond.
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 searches at the homes of some of these young senior officials in the cabinet of the ex-president and Mrs. Bongo Valentin, broadcast extensively by state television, showed them at the feet of trunks, suitcases and bags overflowing with wads of banknotes. bank.
The former first lady of Gabon is under house arrest in Libreville “for her protection”, according to the presidency. “We have no news from Ms. Valentin who is being held incommunicado outside of any legal framework. This situation is unjustifiable and incompatible with the rule of law. We have filed a complaint against those responsible for what appears to be a taking of hostage,” one of his lawyers in Paris, Me François Zimeray, told AFP.
As the opposition had done for several years, the putschists accused Sylvia Bongo Valentin and her son Noureddin of having been the “true leaders of the country” and at the heart of a gigantic network of corruption, in particular by manipulating the head of the State victim of a stroke in 2018 who does not have prisoner status.
Ali Bongo, first placed under house arrest in Libreville, is “free to move” and can “go abroad”, General Oligui announced on September 6.
On September 13, General Brice Oligui Nguema, designated transitional president, announced a commission of inquiry into public procurement to track down “fraud”.
After the putsch, the former aide-de-camp of Omar Bongo, who had ruled the country with an iron fist for more than 40 years, immediately summoned the bosses practicing “overbilling” against kickbacks paid to senior officials of the deposed power to “stop these maneuvers” in public procurement, during a threatening speech in front of 200 to 300 Gabonese business leaders “summoned” to the presidency.
A few days later, he publicly reprimanded hundreds of senior civil servants and public sector executives: “Come and return the embezzled funds within 48 hours, otherwise we will come and get you and you will see the difference,” he declared.
Following an NGO complaint in 2007, Parisian anti-corruption judges looked into suspicions of embezzlement of public funds which had notably enabled the Bongo family to acquire considerable assets in France.
Several members of the Bongo family, from Omar the late father to Ali the son, including other relatives, notably his daughter Pascaline, are suspected of having benefited from significant real estate assets “fraudulently” acquired and valued by justice “at 85 million euros”.
Nine children of Omar Bongo are indicted in France, notably for concealment of embezzlement of public funds as part of the investigation into “ill-gotten gains”.
Gabon, ruled by the Bongo family since 1967, where Ali Bongo succeeded his father Omar upon his death in 2009, is often denounced for the extent of the corruption practiced there. The country is ranked 136th out of 180 for perception of corruption by Transparency International (2022).
20/09/2023 18:25:41 – Libreville (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
