The wife of Ali Bongo Ondimba, the deposed president of Gabon, has been charged with “money laundering” and other offenses, the public prosecutor announced on Friday, September 29.
On Thursday, an investigating judge charged Sylvia Bongo Ondimba Valentin, according to Andre Patrick Roponat, who made the announcement on state TV.
Since the coup in the oil-rich country on August 30, she has been under house arrest in the capital Libreville.
Roponat stated that her house arrest order had also been upheld.
She was kept “incommunicado outside of any legal framework,” according to a statement made earlier this month by one of her attorneys.
Their son Noureddin Bongo Valentin has already been accused of stealing public money along with a number of former cabinet members and two ex-ministers.
Moments after being declared the winner of a presidential election, military leaders deposed Bongo, 64, who had ruled the country of central Africa since 2009.
The opposition and the leaders of the military coup have also accused his regime of widespread corruption and poor leadership, and they have called the results a fraud.
After nearly 42 years in power, Ali Bongo succeeded his father Omar when he passed away in 2009.
