International
Former Gabon First Lady, Sylvia Bongo charged with money laundering, forgery
The wife of ousted Gabonese President Ali Bongo, Sylvia, has been charged with money laundering and other offences including forgery.
This was according to Andre Patrick Roponat, the country’s public prosecutor.
The former Gabonese First Lady whose husband was overthrown on August 30 in a coup by the presidential guards, was put under house arrest by the military junta alongside her husband and son, Noureddin Bongo Valentin, who has already been charged with corruption and embezzling public funds along with some former cabinet members and two ex-ministers.
Read also: Coup in Gabon, as military officers announce taking over power
In the announcement broadcast on national television, Roponat said Mrs. Bongo is also facing other charges including concealment and embezzlement.
However, one of her lawyers who addressed a press conference in the capital Libreville on Friday, raised an alarm that she was being kept “incommunicado outside any legal framework”.
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