2023-09-20 10:04:46
Raid in the Bongo clan. The eldest son as well as relatives of the former president’s cabinet Gabonese Ali So You’re Dead were indicted and imprisoned for “high treason” and “active corruption”, three weeks after the coup d’état which overthrew the deposed leader.
“All the charges at the time of their arrests were retained for their indictments,” said André-Patrick Roponat, namely “high treason against state institutions, massive embezzlement of public funds, international financial embezzlement in organized gang, forgery and use of forgery, falsification of the signature of the President of the Republic, active corruption, drug trafficking.”
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 soldiers, led by General Brice Oligui Nguema, overthrew himnotably accusing his regime of “massive embezzlement” of public funds.
Ali Bongo, “free to move”
The same day of the coup, the military arrested one of the sons of the deposed head of state, as well as five other young senior officials in the cabinet of the ex-president and his wife Sylvia Bongo Valentin. The searches at their homes, broadcast extensively by state television, showed them at the feet of trunks, suitcases and bags overflowing with wads of bank notes.
Ali Bongo, first placed under house arrest in Libreville, the capital of Gabon, is “free to move” and can “go abroad”, General Oligui announced on September 6.
Investigation into “ill-gotten gains”
On September 13, General Brice Oligui Nguema, appointed transitional presidentannounced a commission of inquiry into public procurement to track down “fraud”.
After the putsch, the former aide-de-campOmar Bongo – former president of Gabon and who had ruled the country with an iron fist for more than 40 years – immediately called on 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.
Read alsoBongo father and son, a dynasty in power in Gabon for more than 55 years
A few days later, he publicly reprimanded hundreds of senior civil servants and public sector executives: “Come and return the embezzled funds yourself 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 misappropriation 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 the courts “at 85 million euros”.
Read alsoThe Bongo system, its millions and the affair of ill-gotten gains
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).
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