Secrets keep Gabon general jailed

2009-10-30 23:00

Libreville - The head general of Gabon's national council for security has been detained in prison in Libreville for the last four weeks, a Gabonese bi-monthly reported on Friday.

"Since 1 October (...) the general is being held at Libreville's main prison without it being possible to establish any fact against him," Echos du Nord said on Jean-Philippe Ntumpa Lebani's situation.

The Gabonese authorities have declined to comment.

Ex-defence minister Jean-Francois Ndongou confirmed to AFP on September 16 that an "instruction was in process" on the subject but gave no further details, saying it was a "military secret".

A source close to the government told AFP on Friday that the investigation was based on "an attempted coup d'état" that the "law will decide on".

Lebani, a general for the republican guard, had been in his role at the head of the security council since December 2008.

Ali Bongo was sworn in as Gabon's new president in October 2009 after the constitutional court upheld his victory at the elections, which was challenged by nine other candidates and a civilian party claiming poll fraud.

Bongo's election followed the death in June of his father, Omar Bongo Ondimba, who had ruled the former French colony on west Africa's equatorial coast for 41 years.

- AFP