UPDATE: SON OF OUSTED GABON LEADER HELD FOR TREASON, GRAFT CASE

September 20, 2023

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A number of supporters of the deposed president of Gabon, Ali Bongo Ondimba, including his son, have been charged with high treason and corruption and are currently in detention, the state prosecutor told AFP on Wednesday.

Four additional individuals connected to the ousted leader, including Bongo’s eldest son Noureddin Bongo Valentin and former presidential spokesperson Jessye Ella Ekogha, “have been charged and placed in provisional detention,” according to Libreville prosecutor Andre-Patrick Roponat.

On August 30, only seconds after being declared the winner of a presidential election, military leaders overthrew Bongo, 64, who had ruled the oil-rich central African nation since 2009.

The opposition and the organisers of the military coup have also accused his rule of extensive corruption and poor leadership, and they have called the results a fraud.

Soldiers detained one of Bongo’s sons, five top cabinet members, and his wife, Sylvia Bongo Valentin, on the same day as the coup.

Rolling photos of people who had been detained in front of luggage purportedly containing cash taken from their houses were broadcast on national television.

AFP