A "scandalous" and "political" decision.

Grace Bongo's lawyer, Me Élise Arfi, questioned, Thursday, April 21, the indictment in France of the daughter of the late President of Gabon Omar Bongo Ondimba in the investigation into "ill-gotten gains".

This questioning "is completely scandalous, it is also political, no one hides it", reacted to AFP Me Arfi, lawyer for Grace Bongo, indicted with three other of her brothers and sisters.

"We will go to the European Court of Human Rights," assured the lawyer.

French justice suspects several members of the Bongo family of having “knowingly” benefited from an important real estate heritage “fraudulently” acquired by the patriarch for a value recently estimated “at at least 85 million euros”.

"Twenty-five years after a sale, we come to get the owner saying that the facts which were used to finance this apartment would not have a legal origin", was offended the lawyer of Grace Bongo, indicted on March 25.

"The French State has collected all the taxes and duties that should be collected. These sales have been legal and regular," she pleaded.

"It is a very, very serious violation of the right to property and the principle of legal certainty, which have constitutional value," she said.

Lack of procedure

"French justice is the guardian of the interests of the Gabonese taxpayer, but at the same time the prosecution refuses Gabon its constitution as a civil party", she also denounced, referring to the recent decision of the investigating magistrate to refuse the status of victim. to the Gabonese State, which is challenging this decision on appeal.

Me Elise Arfi sees a paradox in this: "France will monopolize the Gabonese heritage, and not the Gabonese taxpayer".

Above all, the lawyer wondered about the lack of procedure targeting “all heads of state who have French property”, targeting leaders from the Gulf or the Maghreb.

"Why only Gabon? It's a retaliation," she said.

In France, Rifaat al-Assad, uncle of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, was sentenced in September, on appeal, to four years in prison.

His defense announced an appeal.

Teodorin Obiang, vice-president of Equatorial Guinea, was definitively sentenced in July to three years in prison suspended and 30 million euros in fine, firm, after the rejection of his appeal by the Court of Cassation.

With AFP

The summary of the

France 24 week invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you!

Download the France 24 app

google-play-badge_EN