Gabon first lady charged with money laundering

Sylvia Bongo, the wife of Gabon’s ousted President Ali Bongo, has been charged with money laundering, receiving stolen property, forgery, and the use of forgery.

Public prosecutor Andre Patrick Roponat announced on Friday that Sylvia Bongo’s case had been brought before an investigating judge the day before. He also said her house arrest order was being upheld.

The charges follow weeks of uncertainty about Mrs Bongo’s whereabouts, after she was put under under house arrest on 30 August when the military deposed her husband.

The decision to charge the former first lady comes after her son Noureddin Bongo Valentin was also charged with corruption, embezzlement and placed in pre-trial detention.

However, deposed President Ali Bongo, whose tenure was replete with accusations of corruption, has been released by the military junta and cleared to travel abroad for medical attention if he wished.