Gabon’s ousted ex-president and household arrive in Angola

[ad_1] Gabon's former President, Ali Bongo, who was deposed in a 2023 coup, has left the nation and is now in Angola, the authorities there have introduced.

The Angolan presidency added in an announcement posted on social media that Bongo's household had been launched from detention and have been with him in Luanda.

The Bongo household lawyer, François Zimeray, welcomed the discharge of his shoppers and denounced their "arbitrary and merciless imprisonment".

Bongo's spouse and son, Sylvia and Noureddin, face corruption expenses and had been detained since 2023.

They haven't but publicly commented on the fees, nevertheless Mr Zimeray described his shoppers as being "subjected to torture" whereas being held in what was described as underground cells.

"Sylvia and Noureddin Bongo will now lastly be capable to flip the web page, heal and rebuild their lives," Mr Zimeray stated.

The BBC has contacted Gabon's presidency for touch upon the discharge and subsequent departure of the Bongo household to Angola.

The authorities have beforehand denied subjecting the Sylvia Bongo and her son to merciless therapy.

Gabonese prosecutor Eddy Minang says the discharge of Mrs Bongo and her son is merely provisional, owing to poor well being and that authorized proceedings in opposition to the 2 will proceed.

The household's launch comes after Angolan President João Lourenço, who at the moment heads the African Union, visited Libreville and held talks along with his Gabonese counterpart Brice Oligui Nguema - the previous common who led the coup in opposition to Bongo earlier than being successful a landslide in final month's presidential elections.

Ali Bongo, whose father Omar dominated Gabon for greater than 4 a long time, was in energy for 14 years till the 2023 coup.

After his toppling he was positioned underneath home arrest the place he reportedly remained, though Gabonese authorities say he was free to maneuver about as he wished.

His spouse and son have been detained in jail after which launched earlier this week following a request by the Bongo household lawyer, in response to Mr Minang.

Reacting to their launch, opposition chief Alain Claude Bilie-by-Nze stated present President Oligui Nguema had bowed "to worldwide calls for after what everybody understood to be an abuse of energy".

Sylvia and Noureddin Bongo each stand accused of embezzling public funds, with Mrs Bongo particularly dealing with expenses of forgery, cash laundering and falsifying paperwork.

Throughout their 14 years in energy, the Bongo household had been accused of accumulating wealth for themselves on the expense of the nation - allegations they deny.

Regardless of Gabon being an oil-rich nation, a 3rd of its inhabitants lives beneath the poverty line, in response to the UN.

In an indication of warming relations between Gabon and its continental counterparts, the African Union readmitted the nation to its bloc late final month after its membership had been suspended as a result of coup.

In an announcement the physique's chairman, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, stated that he hoped "Gabon's instance will encourage related pathways towards constitutional restoration throughout the continent".