Wife, Son Of Ousted Gabon President Sentenced To 20 Years In Prison
A Gabonese court has convicted the wife and son of ousted President Ali Bongo Ondimba of financial crimes and sentenced them in absentia to 20 years in prison.
Ondimba’s family had ruled the Central African nation for over five decades.
Sylvia Bongo, 62, and her son, Noureddin Bongo Valentin, 33, were accused of embezzling public funds and laundering money.
They have consistently denied the allegations.
The pair were detained following the 2023 military coup that ended Ali Bongo’s 14-year rule.
Their conviction follows nearly two years in detention before they were moved to house arrest in May and later flown, along with Ali Bongo, to Angola, which said it accepted them on “humanitarian grounds.” The family has since relocated to the United Kingdom.
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Ten other individuals are also facing trial in the capital, Libreville this week on similar corruption-related charges.
Lawyers representing the Bongos condemned the proceedings as politically motivated, calling the trial “a predetermined verdict orchestrated by the current regime.”
In a statement released after the judgment, Noureddin Bongo said the verdict “was written in the office of President Brice Oligui Nguema long before the hearing, today was merely a rubber stamp.”
However, Maixent Essa Assoumou, president of the Specialised Criminal Court that delivered the judgment, insisted the ruling was “not an act of revenge, but a restoration of order and accountability.”
Both Sylvia and Noureddin, who also hold French citizenship, have filed complaints in France alleging arbitrary detention and torture by Gabonese authorities.
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Ali Bongo ruled Gabon from October 2009 following the death of his father, Omar Bongo, until August 2023, when he was overthrown in a military coup.
His father, Omar Bongo, had ruled the country for over 41 years (1967–2009), meaning the Bongo family held power in Gabon for more than five decades in total.
Coup leader Brice Oligui Nguema was sworn in as president in May after claiming nearly 95 per cent of the vote in a subsequent election.
The coup in Gabon was one of eight that swept through West and Central Africa between 2020 and 2023.
