Gabon’s deposed president, Ali Bongo has declared a hunger strike, along with two of his sons to protest their “sequestration” and alleged “acts of torture” against family members.
Their lawyers announced this on May 14, stating that they had filed a complaint with the Paris Judicial Court, a week before Gabon’s junta leader Gen Brice Oligui Nguema is set to visit France.
The lawsuit alleges that his wife Sylvia Bongo and eldest son Noureddin who were put in prison by the junta on corruption allegations, have been tortured multiple times, “beaten with a hammer and crowbar, strangled, whipped and electrocuted with a taser.” The lawyers also claimed Slyvia was forced to watch her son’s torture.
In March, the lawyers requested a UN working group to recognize the Bongos’ “arbitrary detention” post-coup.
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Bongo was ousted in a military coup last August, hours after the country’s electoral body declared he had won a disputed election.
His removal from office ended an almost 60-year dynasty by the Bongo family which had ruled the Central African country since 1967.
Although the Gabonese people celebrated the military takeover, concerns remain as the military leader who led the coup is a cousin to oustered president Ali Bongo.
