Gabon’s main opposition figure, Alain Claude Bilie By Nze, has been detained for more than three months in what his legal team describes as a politically motivated case.
In a statement on July 24, Nze’s lawyers said he has spent 100 days in “political and arbitrary” solitary confinement since his arrest on April 15. They allege authorities revived an 18-year-old private financial dispute involving about 7,600 euros, roughly $8,650, to remove him from politics. Nze’s party, Together for Gabon, said he faces accusations of fraud and breach of trust tied to the 2008 case.
According to the lawyers, Nze is being held in a five-square-metre cell without light at a prison in Libreville. They also said the defence has not been allowed to review the case files, and that the investigating judge told them the documents are no longer available. A request to annul the proceedings was rejected by a Libreville appeals court on June 2. Gabon’s Justice Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
“A man is being held on the basis of a case file his defence has never been permitted to see,” lawyer Arthur Vercken said in the statement.
Nze served as prime minister under former president Ali Bongo. He was in that role when current president Brice Oligui Nguema seized power in an August 2023 coup that ended the Bongo family’s more than 50-year rule. Nze later ran against Nguema in last year’s election meant to return the oil-producing Central African nation to civilian rule, but lost.
