Gabon jails activist for defaming ally of president

LIBREVILLE - A prominent environmental activist was sentenced to six months in prison for defamation in Gabon, his lawyer said on Friday, after he accused an ally of the president of secretly owning the local unit of commodities giant Olam International.

Marc Ona Essangui said during a television broadcast that President Ali Bongo's chief of staff, Liban Souleymane, controlled Olam Gabon, which is developing timber, palm oil and rubber projects in the tiny Central African nation.

Souleymane denied the allegation and brought a defamation case against him, which we won in a Libreville court.

"I regret this decision against my client, who was only fulfilling his role of a counterweight (to the government). I will consult with my client and possibly appeal this decision," Ona Essangui's lawyer Ruphin Nkoulou said.

The court also ordered Ona Essangui to pay a fine of 5 million CFA francs ($9,800). The state prosecutor had requested a one-year jail sentence.

During his first appearance in court on March 9, the wheelchair-bound activist said he did not regret making the accusation. "If I had it to do over again, I'd do the same thing," he said at the time.

Olam began operating in Gabon in 1999, establishing a logging operation. It later entered into a joint venture with the Gabonese state to develop plantations and palm oil mills with planned investments of around $236 million.

Gabonese environmental groups have for the past three years requested publication of the joint venture agreement without success.

Ona Essangui was jailed briefly in 2008 after calling for more transparency in the country's public management. ($1 = 510.8300 CFA francs)

Reuters