Gabon Sentences Former First Lady Sylvia Bongo and Son to 20 Years in Prison

GABON – Gabon court on Wednesday sentenced the former first lady Sylvia Bongo Ondimba, 62, and her son Noureddin Bongo Valentin, 33, to 20 years in prison after they were both convicted of multiple graft charges.

Sylvia was found guilty of “embezzlement of public funds and money laundering,” according to the verdict read by the president of Special Criminal Court, Jean Mexant Essa Assoumou in the capital Libreville.

She denied the charges, claiming the court was not independent.

Noureddin Bongo Valentin, meanwhile, was found guilty of “embezzlement of public funds, embezzlement, usurpation of titles and functions, aggravated money laundering and criminal association.”

Currently exiled in London, both were tried in absentia when their trial opened on Monday.

The court also ordered the duo to pay 100 million CFA francs ($172,900) in fines to the state.

Valentin worked as general coordinator of presidential affairs during his father’s rule.

The mother and son were accused of siphoning funds from state coffers when the former president suffered a stroke in 2018.

Prosecution alleged that billions of CFA francs could have passed through a network of shell companies, offshore accounts and discreet investments in complicit financial institutions.

During the trial, prosecution shared images of private jets allegedly acquired through laundered money.

Twelve defendants were implicated in the case, including Mohamed Ali Saliou, who was deputy chief of staff to former president Ali Bongo, Ian Ghislain Ngoulou, former chief of staff of Nourridin Bongo Valentin, eldest son of the ousted president, and Ella Ekogha Jessye, who worked as director of presidential communication.

Ali Bongo was deposed in a military coup in Gabon in 2023, putting to an end the Bongo family’s decades-long rule over the oil-rich central African nation.

Following the coup, Gen. Brice Oligui Nguema, former commander of the Republican Guard, was sworn in as the transitional president, ending 56 years of the so-called Bongo dynasty.

Nguema won a presidential election held in April this year, the first since the bloodless military coup.

Ali, who is not implicated in the corruption charges, had ruled for 14 years when he was ousted after being proclaimed the winner in a presidential election that year.

Sylvia Bongo and Nourredin Bongo Valentin, were arrested in the wake of the military coup. They were provisionally released in May for medical reasons.