Daily Times

The wife of Gabon’s deposed president Ali Bongo Ondimba, who has been under house arrest since a late August coup over alleged embezzlement of public funds, was on Thursday put in a Libreville prison.

Sylvia Bongo Ondimba Valentin, who is Franco-Gabonese, was charged on September 28 with money laundering, forgery and falsification of records.

The 60-year-old was provisionally imprisoned in the early hours following a long hearing in front of a judge, her lawyer Gisele Eyue-Bekale told AFP. The lawyer said a request for a hearing in 10 days had been granted, at which she would be able to appeal for her client’s release.

Sylvia Bongo and one of the couple’s sons are under investigation as part of a wider inquiry into alleged massive embezzlement of public money. Their eldest son, Noureddin Bongo Valentin, has been detained as well as six former cabinet officials, according to legal sources.

Sylvia Bongo had been under house arrest in Libreville since an August 30 coup brought the curtain down on 55 years of rule by the Bongo dynasty.

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. 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.

The putschists accuse Sylvia Bongo and Noureddin of having manipulated the former president, who is suffering the after-effects of a serious stroke in 2018.

They are accused of having effectively pulled the strings in the oil-rich country for the past five years.

Sylvia Bongo had been isolated from her husband, and her French lawyers had complained of what they said “appears to be a hostage-taking”. “We condemned this illegal procedure,” her Paris-based lawyer Francois Zimeray said on Thursday following her jailing.