Lawyers for the family of accused former Gabon president Ali Bongo Ondimba on Tuesday slammed what they termed French “silence” over alleged torture suffered during a “cruel and illegal detention.”
Former first lady Sylvia Bongo and her son Noureddin have been in custody since an August 2023 coup brought to power Brice Oligui Nguema, toppling the Bongo dynasty which had ruled the oil-rich country for over half a century.
French-born Sylvia, 62, and Noureddin, 33, are accused of corruption, embezzlement and forging the former president’s signature.
“The French authorities have been informed and yet they kept a dramatic silence,” lawyer Catalina de la Sota told a press briefing.
“They are French nationals, the authorities have the duty and the obligation to ensure their rights,” added de la Sota.
Another lawyer, Francois Zimeray, said Gabon was using the lack of a French reaction to “manipulate public opinion”.
Nguema recently spoke out against alleged maltreatment of the accused and promised a “fair trial” as he ramps up his campaign for April 12 presidential elections.
In an interview with Radio France Internationale and France 24 last week, he said that “if we succeeded in staging a coup without spilling blood, two individuals will not be tortured in this country.
“The proof is that you have your officials at the embassy who visit them in prison. Ask them. There are no signs of torture on their bodies.”
‘Vengeance’
But the defence team claim Noureddin bears physical signs of torture while they say former first lady has been subjected to psychological torture in a bid to force them to make a confession, extract payments and to sign over property to the regime.
The former president, living at home in the capital, is “free to leave the country”, according to the government.
However, according to another son Jalil, he is under surveillance and “under house arrest”.
Zimeray says the pair are being held in a basement beneath the presidential palace and that once a month they are brought back to the prison to meet the French consul general who he said should not “remain silent”.
“The question of international relations is complex but it is about human rights,” he added.
He also accused the authorities of illegally seizing numerous Bongo family assets by force, including villas and companies in Gabon as well as bank accounts in Gabon and Dubai, plus real estate in Marrakech given to Bongo by Morocco’s King Mohamed VI.
“This has nothing to do with justice but with vengeance,” charged Zimeray.
He slammed “a collective vengeance led by a man who lies when he denies the existence of this torture, a professional of torture who is capable of saying in his crass ignorance the Bongos will have a fair trial yet saying all the while they are guilty and that he has seen the evidence on file”.
