In Gabon, former President Ali Bongo and his two youngest sons Jalil and Bilal began a hunger strike to protest against the ” sequestration ” and the ” acts of torture » of which several members of their family are victims. The announcement was made on Tuesday May 14 by their lawyers, who also indicated that a complaint had been filed before the Paris Judicial Court.
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The masters François Zimeray and Catalina de la Sota published a press release announcing their filing of a complaint with constitution of party in Paris. This while General Brice Oligui Nguema, at the head of Gabon since the August 2023 putsch, is due to go to Paris in the coming days. With this procedure, the Bongo family’s defense aims to obtain the appointment of an investigating judge in France to investigate these accusations.
A first simple complaint filed by Ali’s wife, Sylvia Bongo, on September 1, two days after the coup, to denounce this arbitrary detention, was already filed in October, according to the lawyers.
The new complaint denounces a “ illegal arrest, kidnapping aggravated by acts of torture and barbaric acts committed against Ali Bongo Ondimba, Sylvia Bongo and their sons Noureddin, Jalil and Bilal », the first four being presented as French nationals.
According to the advice, Noureddin Bongo was “ repeatedly tortured, beaten with a hammer and a crowbar, strangled, whipped and electrocuted with a taser. Sylvia Bongo, forced to witness torture (…), was also beaten and strangled, as part of an unlimited dispossession of family property “.
Ali, Jalil and Bilal have for their part “ were placed under house arrest, deprived of means of communication with the outside world and also subjected to acts of torture “, still support the councils.
The lawyers already asked a UN working group in mid-March to recognize their “ arbitrary detention » after the army coup of August 30, 2023.
Popular among the vast majority of Gabonese people for having put an end to 55 years of “ Bongo dynasty », General Brice Oligui Nguema, leader of the putsch, was proclaimed transitional president by the army two days after the coup d’état of August 30, 2023.
Maître François Zimeray, one of the Bongo family lawyers, explains this approach