The wife of Gabon’s ousted president Ali Bongo Ondimba has been charged with “money laundering” and other offences, the public prosecutor said Friday, a month after her husband was toppled in a coup.

Sylvia Bongo Ondimba Valentin, who is Franco-Gabonese, and one of the couple’s sons have been accused by the coup leader of having pulled the strings in the oil-rich country.

Their eldest son, Noureddin Bongo Valentin, has already been charged with corruption and embezzling public funds with several former cabinet members and two ex-ministers.

Sylvia Bongo was charged by an investigating judge on Thursday and ordered to remain under house arrest, Andre Patrick Roponat announced on state TV channels.

She also faces other charges including concealment and forgery, he said.

Sylvia Bongo has been under house arrest in the capital Libreville since the August 30 coup brought the curtain down on 55 years of Bongo dynasty rule.

She has been isolated from her husband and her French lawyers filed a complaint in Paris against what they said “appears to be a hostage-taking”.

“No one is above the law but the law must be respected for all,” one of her lawyers Francois Zimeray told AFP on Friday.

“What to think of a justice system which keeps people in solitary confinement for weeks before charging them, without having access to a defence?”

– Corruption –