PH
The wife of Gabon’s deposed president, Ali Bongo Ondimba, has been charged with “money laundering” and other offenses, according to the public prosecutor, a month after her husband was deposed in a coup.
An investigating judge charged Sylvia Bongo Ondimba Valentin on Thursday, Andre Patrick Roponat said on state TV networks on Friday.
She has been under house arrest in the capital Libreville since the August 30 revolution in the oil-rich nation.
Her house arrest order has also been upheld, Roponat said.
Earlier this month, one of her laywers stated that she was being held “incommunicado outside any legal framework.”
Noureddin Bongo Valentin, their son, has previously been accused with corruption and embezzlement of public funds alongside six former cabinet members and two ex-ministers.
Bongo, 64, who had ruled the country since 2009, was deposed by military leaders just seconds after being declared the winner of a presidential election.
The opposition and military coup leaders have called the outcome a sham and have accused his rule of pervasive corruption and poor governance.
Ali Bongo took over when his father Omar died in 2009 after nearly 42 years in power.
