A court in Gabon has sentenced the former first lady and the son of deposed President Ali Bongo to 20 years in jail following a two-day trial.
On Tuesday night, Sylvia Bongo and Noureddin Bongo were found guilty of embezzlement and corruption after a trial that began a day earlier in their absence.
They were both fined 100m CFA francs ($177,000; £135,000), with Noureddin ordered to pay an extra 1.2tn CFA francs ($2.1; £1.6bn) for financial damages suffered by the Gabonese state.
They were accused of exploiting Ali Bongo's condition after he suffered a stroke in 2018 to run Gabon for their own personal profit. They denied the charges ahead of their trial, describing it as "a legal farce."
Ali Bongo was ousted in an August 2023 coup led by Brice Oligui Nguema, who has since shed his military uniform and was elected president earlier this year.
