The wife of Gabon\u2019s deposed president Ali Bongo Ondimba, who has been under house arrest since a late August coup over the suspected embezzlement of public funds, has been jailed, her lawyer said Thursday.<\/p>\n
Sylvia Bongo Ondimba Valentin, who is Franco-Gabonese, was imprisoned late on Wednesday, her Paris-based lawyer Francois Zimeray told AFP, condemning the \u201carbitrary\u2026 illegal procedure\u201d.<\/p>\n
The 60-year-old was charged on September 28 with money laundering, forgery and falsification of records.<\/p>\n
According to Gabonese media reports, she was taken into custody at a prison in the capital Libreville following a long hearing in front a judge.<\/p>\n
Sylvia Bongo had been under house arrest in Libreville since a August 30 coup brought the curtain down on 55 years of rule by the Bongo dynasty.<\/p>\n
Ali Bongo, 64, who had ruled the central African country since 2009, was overthrown by military leaders moments after being proclaimed the winner in a presidential election.<\/p>\n
The election 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.<\/p>\n
The putschists accuse Sylvia Bongo of having manipulated the former president, who is suffering the after-effects of a serious stroke in 2018.<\/p>\n
They say she and one of the couple\u2019s sons have effectively pulled the strings in the oil-rich country for the past five years and have misused public money.<\/p>\n
Their eldest son, Noureddin Bongo Valentin, has been charged with corruption and embezzling public funds with several former cabinet members and two ex-ministers.<\/p>\n
Sylvia Bongo had been isolated from her husband, and her French lawyers had complained of what they said \u201cappears to be a hostage-taking\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe condemned this illegal procedure,\u201d lawyer Zimeray said on Thursday following her jailing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a difference between justice and arbitrary actions, between the law and revenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
The public prosecutor in Libreville has not yet responded to an AFP request for comment.<\/p>\n
Many in Gabon saw the overthrow of the Bongo dynasty as an act of liberation rather than a military coup.<\/p>\n
Ali Bongo was elected after his father Omar died in 2009 after nearly 42 years in power.<\/p>\n
Gabon is Africa\u2019s third-richest nation in terms of per-capita GDP but one in three people lives below the poverty line, according to the World Bank.<\/p>\n
Noureddin Bongo Valentin was indicted last month and placed in provisional detention for alleged corruption.<\/p>\n
In all, 10 people were indicted on charges ranging from electoral college operational issues, counterfeiting and use of the seals of the republic, to corruption, embezzlement of public funds and money laundering.<\/p>\n
Two former ministers \u2014 for oil and public works \u2014 have also been detained.<\/p>\n
Bongo, who was himself under house arrest for several days after the coup, is free to move around and go abroad, Gabon\u2019s new military ruler General Brice Oligui Nguema said a week after the coup.<\/p>\n
The new strongman lost no time in warning that corruption would no longer be tolerated.<\/p>\n
He has set up a civilian government and appointed members of a new national assembly and senate for a transitional period ahead of promised elections on an unknown date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The wife of Gabon\u2019s deposed president Ali Bongo Ondimba, who has been under house arrest since a late August coup over the suspected embezzlement of public funds, has been jailed, her lawyer said Thursday. Sylvia Bongo Ondimba Valentin, who is Franco-Gabonese, was imprisoned late on Wednesday, her Paris-based lawyer Francois Zimeray told AFP, condemning the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4001"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4003,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4001\/revisions\/4003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}