In France, the Paris Court of Appeal confirmed on Wednesday 17 January the indictment of Pascaline Bongo, the eldest daughter of former Gabonese president Omar Bongo, in the main case of ” illicit goods “. Like two other members of the Bongo brothers, the one who for a certain period was director of their father’s office will have to face an investigating judge, because she is suspected of having benefited from the fraudulent real estate accumulated by her father in France.
Published on: 17.01.2024 – 14:12
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This decision is implacable: here is essentially the reaction of Me Corinne Dreyfus, Pascaline Bongo’s lawyer. THE maintenance of this accusation it goes beyond, in her opinion, the simple case of her client: “ We have the feeling that there is a steamroller and that there is a deliberate desire to incriminate Madame Pascaline Bongo, because it represents the entire history of her family, and it is as if we wanted to make her pay for the actions that her father allegedly committed. »
« Rearguard battle »
However, the defense obtained the cancellation of the previous hearings during which Omar Bongo’s daughter had been heard. No importance in my opinion William Bourdon, lawyer of Transparency International, an NGO which is a civil party in the case: ” It is the epiphenomenon of a sort of race, a rearguard battle, that all these characters are waging. It is the impotence to defend ourselves on the merits and when we are powerless to defend ourselves on the merits, what do we do? We carry out procedures, appeals in all directions, to avoid a trial which, inevitably, will take place one day or another. »
To date, it is impossible to announce the date of a possible trial in this case, the first judicial documents of which date back 17 years.
Read also: What will happen to the Bongos’ “illicit earnings” in France?
2024-01-17 13:12:13
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