The lawyers of Sylvia Bongo, Franco-Gabonese wife of President Ali Bongo Ondimba placed under house arrest by soldiers after his dismissal on Wednesday following a coup d’etat, filed a complaint in Paris on Friday for arbitrary detention, announced to the Agency France Presse, Me François Zimeray and Jessica Finelle. “Mrs. Valentin, wife Bongo, has been deprived of her freedom since the putsch of August 30, 2023, as has her youngest son Jalil,” the two lawyers said in a statement.
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 two lawyers filed a simple complaint with the Paris prosecutor’s office, mainly targeting the crimes of enforced disappearance and kidnapping by public officials.
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 facts, who incur life imprisonment”, hope the counsel.
Putschist soldiers announced on Wednesday that they had put an “end to the regime in place” in Gabon and had placed the president in power for 14 years under house arrest, just after the official announcement of his victory in the presidential election organized on Saturday.
The former First Lady, Franco-Gabonese, was regularly the target, with her son Noureddin, of accusations from the opposition, civil society and certain local media when they affirmed that, since his stroke, Ali Bongo was very weakened by his after-effects and “manipulated” by some of his “relatives”.
Noureddin Bongo Valentin was arrested on Wednesday by the putschists, as were six other men close to him and members of the ousted president’s cabinet or at the head of his all-powerful Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG). The seven are part of the “young guard” accused by the opposition of being the “true leaders” of the country since the return of Ali Bongo from convalescence.
According to the lawyers, “Nourredin Bongo Valentin is imprisoned in a secret location. Those around suspect the putschists of fabricating so-called evidence aimed at discrediting the family members and legitimizing their arrest.” The putschists accuse them in particular of “high treason”, “massive embezzlement of public funds” and “falsification of the signature” of the head of state. The mutinous soldiers, when announcing these arrests and the placement of Ali Bongo under “house arrest” on Wednesday, said nothing about the fate of Sylvia Bongo.