French court rejects corruption charges against daughter of Gabon's ex-president

The Paris criminal court found Pascaline Bongo not guilty, alongside French construction firm Egis Route and five individuals.

Pascaline Bongo, who was her father's chief of staff until his death in 2009, was accused of helping Egis Route secure public contracts in Gabon between 2010 and 2011, when her brother Ali Bongo had taken over as president.

Prosecutors alleged that she accepted a promise of €8 million in kickbacks. They wanted Bongo to be sentenced to three years in prison, with two years suspended. 

But the court found that Bongo's position as "high personal representative of the president" did not grant her the ability to award the contract in question.

Ruling

"Nothing in the case enables us to prove an intervention in favour of Edis Route using her ties to the president," the presiding judge added.

She also highlighted that the French law making it an offence to bribe a foreign public official did not exist at the time of the alleged infraction.

"It's reassuring that the court made a fair reading of the situation. This is a victory for the law," said Bongo's lawyer Corinne Dreyfus-Schmidt.

Two former senior Egis Route managers and its current sales chief Christian Laugier – formerly in charge of the firm's Africa business and chief executive – were also in the dock.

The three men were accused of offering Pascaline Bongo the €8 million kickback for the public works contract.

Legal battle

Revealed by French newspaper Libération, the charges relate to contracts to consult on the creation of a national agency in charge of public infrastructure projects.

The agency was overseen by Ali Bongo, who became president when his father died in 2009. 

The trial opened at the end of January, with lawyers for Bongo arguing for the case to be thrown out on the grounds that it did not fall under French jurisdiction and that the alleged misdeeds were outside the statute of limitations.

They also claimed that evidence had been seized illegally. 

The judge nonetheless allowed hearings to continue, promising to address their objections in the final ruling. 

Rare charges

France rarely pursues corruption charges against foreign officials or French companies operating overseas, according to Sara Brimbeuf of Transparency International France.

Speaking to RFI at the start of Bongo's trial, she said the anti-corruption watchdog would be following it closely to see if it could set a precedent for other potential prosecutions.

In 2010, the French judiciary opened a so-called "ill-gotten gains" enquiry into the origin of the fortune Omar Bongo used to buy assets in France.

Spanning 15 years, the probe resulted in the seizure of several properties and embezzlement charges against several of Bongo's children – though not Ali Bongo, who as a sitting president benefited from immunity.

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Family affair

Several members of the Bongo family have been charged in Gabon since Ali Bongo was forced from power in August 2023. 

His wife, Sylvia Bongo Valentin, was charged the following month with money laundering, forgery and falsification of records and subsequently jailed.

Their son, Noureddin Bongo Valentin, has been charged with corruption and embezzling public funds.

He and several Bongo allies were arrested shortly after military leaders ousted the former leader on 30 August, moments after he was proclaimed the winner of a third presidential election.

(with AFP)