Neither they nor their lawyers were present, but Sylvia and Noureddin Bongo, the wife and son of Gabon’s deposed president, Ali Bongo, were on Wednesday November 11 sentenced to twenty years in prison, primarily for embezzlement of public funds.
The statements of several defendants and witnesses during the two days of trial revealed the existence of a system of confiscation of state money “for personal gain”amounting to billions of CFA francs according to the indictment of Attorney General Eddy Minang. And in court, some of them revealed astonishing amounts, in the billions of CFA francs, from state coffers and private use.
The head of the special criminal court, Jean Mexant Essa Assoumou, followed the request of the public prosecutor and found Sylvia Bongo, 62, guilty of “concealment and embezzlement of public funds and money laundering, expropriation of funds and incitement of forgery”, and Noureddin Bongo, 33, of “embezzlement of public funds, extortion, deprivation of property and functions, aggravated laundering of capital and criminal association.” Both were sentenced “twenty years criminal imprisonment and a fine of 100 million CFA francs”or about 152,000 euros.
“The conditions for a fair and just trial are still not met”
For the financial losses suffered by the state of Gabon as a civil party, justice also ordered Noureddin Bongo to pay more than 1.201 billion CFA francs (1.83 billion euros). Sylvia and Noureddin Bongo must also jointly pay 1,000 billion CFA francs (1.52 billion euros) to the state of Gabon in moral damages.
As announced since mid-October, neither Sylvia nor Noureddin Bongo, who is based in London, nor their defense appeared at the hearing. “The conditions for a fair and just trial are still not met”said Noureddin Bongo in an interview with Agence France-Presse on Wednesday.
Arrested following the 30 August 2023 coup by President Brice Oligui Nguema, since elected president, Sylvia and Noureddin Bongo were imprisoned for twenty months in Gabon before being allowed to leave the country as part of a temporary measure of freedom.
Noureddin Bongo was also found guilty of “active corruption” against members of the Gabon Central Elections Center (CGE), the commission for the 2023 general elections, for giving them 500 million CFA francs to “to get a decision that favors his father”declared the winner of the presidential election before being ousted, detailing the chief justice Mr. Assoumou.
A complaint was filed of “torture” before a French court
Ten of Bongo’s former close collaborators, most of whom were also arrested during the 2023 coup, were still emerging as of Friday. They are mainly accused of being involved in embezzlement of public funds, active corruption, extortion, forgery and use of counterfeit money, criminal association and money laundering.
Sylvia and Noureddin Bongo, who like Ali Bongo have French citizenship, filed a complaint of “torture” with a French court. They admitted that while detained in Gabon, “brutally tortured repeatedly by soldiers closest to President Oligui Nguema: whipped, electrocuted, drowned, beaten, and worse”.
The Bongo family – father, Omar, a pillar of Françafrique from 1967 to 2009, then son, Ali – ruled Gabon for fifty-five years, a small oil-rich central African country whose elites were accused by opponents of doing the same. “massive corruption” and from “bad government”.
General Oligui, who officially became the country’s president in mid-April, denied any form of torture in late March and promised that Sylvia and Noureddin Bongo would be punished. “fair trial”.
