section_path: Coup/Arrests of Ali Bongo and other officials
section_name: Arrests of Ali Bongo and other officials
paragraph_text: Arrests of Ali Bongo and other officials
  
  The junta later announced the arrest and home detention of Bongo and his eldest son and adviser Noureddin Bongo Valentin, adding that the two were with family and doctors. However, lawyers for Ali Bongo's wife Sylvia Valentin later claimed that Nouredin was being held in an undisclosed location. Valentin herself was reported to be under house arrest, and was later charged with money laundering, receiving stolen goods, forgery and fraud. The President of the National Assembly, Richard Auguste Onouviet, was also arrested by the junta, along with presidential chief of staff Ian Ghislain Ngoulou, his deputy Mohamed Ali Saliou, presidential spokesperson Jessye Ella Ekogha, another presidential adviser and the two top officials in Bongo's Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG). The junta said that they were arrested on charges that included treason, embezzlement, corruption, falsifying the president's signature and drug-trafficking. Trunks, suitcases and bags filled with billions of Central African CFA francs were reportedly seized from their homes, with Ngoulou claiming that some of the money was part of Bongo’s election fund.
  
  Despite his detention, Bongo released a video on social media in which he appeared distressed while pleading for help in English, claiming that he was being held separately from his family while calling on his friends and supporters both in Gabon and around the world to "raise their voice" and "make noise" in response to the coup. Following his appeal, the CEO of a communications firm that helped Bongo during the election said that the military seized the phones of those who were with Bongo.