Highlights: Pascaline Bongo is accused of passive bribery of a foreign public official. She is suspected of having intervened, in exchange for money, to help a French company win a public contract in Gabon. The daughter of the late Gabonese president, Omar Bongo, and sister of Ali Bongo. The hearing is continuing and we will be able to get to the bottom of this matter, says the judge, who will make her decision at the end of the trial. The prosecutor refuted these points, specifying that there was no intention of relentlessness against Pascaline.

An unprecedented trial opened this Monday, January 29, in France. Pascaline Bongo is on trial at the Paris Judicial Court. The daughter of the late Gabonese President, Omar Bongo, and sister of Ali Bongo,…

Gabon: facing French justice, Pascaline Bongo's defense requests the annulment of the trial

An unprecedented trial opened this Monday, January 29, in France. Pascaline Bongo is on trial at the Paris Judicial Court. The daughter of the late Gabonese president, Omar Bongo, and sister of Ali Bongo, Gabonese head of state deposed in a coup last August, is accused of passive bribery of a foreign public official. She is suspected of having intervened, in exchange for money, to help a French company win a public contract in Gabon.

Pascaline Bongo, sister of deposed Gabonese president Ali Bongo, upon her arrival at court on January 29, 2024 in Paris. © Sébastien Nemeth / RFI

By: RFI Follow

Hearing report,

Sébastien Németh

During the hearing at the Paris courthouse, defense lawyers notably requested a cancellation of the trial.

The first salvo came from Master Dreyfus-Schmidt. Pascaline Bongo's lawyer described her client as a "

magnet

" and that investigators had an "

irrepressible attraction

" to bring her to court because of her notoriety.

She denounced a “

worrying drift

” from the prosecution because there was “

a whole fable

” built around her that Pascaline Bongo had power, influence at the top of the state.

The lawyer then requested the annulment of the trial because French justice was not competent, because the facts would have prescribed, because evidence would have been illegally seized, in particular from the office of a lawyer of the eldest daughter Bongo .

These documents are links between Pascaline Bongo and the French company Egis Route, suspected of hiding acts of corruption. A law firm that Maître Labrousse, another defense lawyer, describes as a sanctuary where professional secrecy must be respected. There was “

transgression

” by the investigators, he said. “

The procedures were diverted using an unfair ploy

,” said another lawyer.

The prosecutor refuted these points, specifying that there was no intention of relentlessness against Pascaline Bongo nor blindness on the part of the prosecution. The public prosecutor recalls that there was a risk that certain evidence would be destroyed or that Pascaline Bongo's advice would block all the procedures. It was therefore necessary to seize the documents.

In the end, on all these requests for annulment, the judge declared that she would make her decision at the end of the trial. The hearings are therefore continuing and we will be able to get to the bottom of this matter.

Read alsoGabon: Pascaline Bongo faces French justice for suspicion of corruption

Gabon: facing French justice, Pascaline Bongo's defense requests the annulment of the trial

Gabon: facing French justice, Pascaline Bongo's defense requests the annulment of the trial

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