A general in Gabon's army who is accused of plotting a coup against President Ali Bongo Ondimba insisted Tuesday that he was innocent of all charges as he appeared before a trial judge.
"All that is blamed on me, I do not acknowledge. I never incited a plot…I never incited a coup d'etat," Jean-Philippe Ntumpa Lebani, said in front of Gabon's State Security Court, an AFP reporter present said.
The former leader of the National Security Council, jailed since September 2009, was initially charged with "attempting" to attack the state with five other military men.
But the charge was later modified to "plotting" a coup against the president in the transition period after the death in June 2009 of his father and predecessor Omar Bongo Ondimba.
However government commissioner Eusebe Ondo Ndong rejected Ntumpa's claim of innocence, saying he had "declared in previous hearings that he intended to place Ali Bongo Ondimba in a 'Togolese' scenario."
The commissioner was referring to a 2009 coup attempt in Togo against President Faure Gnassingbe allegedly plotted by his half-brother, who was later arrested.
As Ntumpa took the stand for over two hours, he acknowledged that scheming a Togo-style coup came to his mind, but having never met the Gabonese president, he let go of the idea.
Lieutenants Emile Akandas Areno and Cedric Boukoumbi, also jailed since 2009, also appeared in court.
Major Marcel Roger Mombert, Captain Juste Parfait Oura Amegue and Lieutenant Harold Ndoguinot, who were previously free, were jailed Sunday.
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