2023-09-01 14:07:33
Coup in Gabon
Complaint in France once morest the detention of Sylvia Bongo
The Franco-Gabonese wife of President Ali Bongo “has been deprived of her freedom since the putsch of August 30, 2023, as has her youngest son Jalil”, write her lawyers.
PostedSeptember 1, 2023, 4:07 PM
The French nationality of Sylvia Bongo gives jurisdiction to French justice for a possible investigation into these facts.
“Concerned for their health and safety”
The two lawyers filed a simple complaint with the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office, mainly targeting the crimes of enforced disappearance and kidnapping by public officials. The French nationality of Sylvia Bongo gives jurisdiction to French justice for a possible investigation into these facts. “This procedure might lead to the issuance of an international arrest warrant once morest the perpetrators of these facts, who incur life imprisonment”, hope the advice.
Video: The Bongo family falters following decades of rule.
Accused of “high treason”
Putschist soldiers announced on Wednesday that they had put an “end to the regime in place” in Gabon and placed them under house arrest the president in power for 14 years, just following 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 following-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” and are accused by the opposition of being the “true leaders” of the country since the return from convalescence of Ali Bongo.
According to the lawyers, “Nourredin Bongo Valentin is imprisoned in an undisclosed location. The entourage suspects 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 regarding the fate of Sylvia Bongo.
(AFP)Show comments
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