The son of Gabon’s ex-president Ali Bongo will not return to Libreville with his mother to face trial for embezzlement of public funds, Noureddin Bongo told AFP in an interview published on Friday. Bongo and his mother Sylvia are on conditional bail in London after a coup in August 2023 toppled the family dynasty, which had ruled the oil-rich central African country for more than half a century. “The conditions for a fair and equitable trial are still not in place,” he alleged of the court case, which is scheduled to begin on Monday. “The outcome has already been decided in advance.” He said his Gabonese lawyer, Gisele Eyue-Bekale, would not attend the hearing either to avoid “justifying… a legal farce”. The 2023 coup that brought President Brice Oligui Nguema to power brought the curtain down on 55 years of rule by the Bongo family. Deposed president Ali Bongo — who succeeded his father Omar when the latter died in 2009 after 41 years in power — is not being prosecuted in Gabon. His wife Sylvia, 62, and son Noureddin, 33, were jailed on corruption charges. They were accused of manipulating Bongo senior, who had suffered a serious stroke in 2018, and effectively running Gabon for their own ends. The three left the country in May when Bongo junior and his mother were granted provisional release — officially on medical grounds.They alleged they had been tortured in detention, including by people in the current president’s entourage, and have filed a lawsuit to that effect in France, where they hold citizenship. “We know full well that if we go back, we will suffer things far worse than we have already suffered,” Bongo told AFP. – Allegations -Oligui — a former general who was officially sworn in as head of state in April — has denied there was any form of torture and promised that both would have a “fair trial”. “We are not opposed to the idea of being held accountable for so-called acts we may have committed,” Bongo insisted.”But only if it is before an independent and genuine court of law, not one that is clearly under the orders of the executive branch in Gabon.” He said their treatment had left his mother “physically and psychologically… broken”. In July and November 2025, the Bongo family posted videos online purporting to show a Gabonese judge in charge of their case admitting to “pressure” from “members of the military junta” to pursue the charges. Other more recent images purport to show magistrates asking them to sign a document authorising their provisional release on medical grounds in return for agreeing not to prosecute the Gabonese state for their alleged mistreatment. The videos have not been independently verified. Oligui’s office said on Friday the videos were “an attempt at destabilisation that will not work”.”Regardless of the number of videos, the trial will go ahead and justice will be served,” spokesman Theophane Nzame-Nze Biyoghe told reporters. Bongo told AFP the French investigation into their torture allegations was “progressing much faster than we could have hoped”. “I have complete confidence in these investigating judges and the French justice system. I am not worried that justice will be done one day, even if it takes time.”
