After being questioned by the prosecutor and then by a investigating judge on Tuesday, Noureddin Bongo, the son of former President Ali Bongo, spent his first night at the central prison in Libreville.
Arrested and detained since August 30 in the aftermath of the takeover by the Committee for Transition and Restoration of Institutions (CTRI), Nourredin Bongo Valentin and his friends were placed in pretrial detention at the central prison in Libreville on September 19, sadly nicknamed “Sans-Famille” (Without Family). Ali Bongo’s son had served as a coordinator at the presidency and a strategic advisor to his father in the PDG party, and some had seen him as a potential successor. Now he finds himself behind bars.
Series of Hearings Around ten high-ranking officials were also questioned on Tuesday by the prosecutor. They had been arrested following the coup on August 30. Most of them were accused of “high treason against the institutions,” “embezzlement of public funds,” “organized international financial malpractice,” “forgery and use of forged documents,” “falsification of the president’s signature,” “active corruption,” or “drug trafficking.”
Among those questioned were Ian Ghislain Ngoulou, the former Chief of Staff of Ali Bongo, Mohamed Ali Saliou, the former Deputy Chief of Staff of the ousted former president, and his brother Abdoul Océni, Jessye Ella Ekogha, former spokesperson for the presidency, Steeve Nzegho Dieko, who was the Secretary-General of the PDG, and Cyriaque Mvourandjami, Ali Bongo’s political Chief of Staff.
