Former French spy suspected of murder in Congo dies in the Alps

A former French secret agent linked to a plot to kill a leading Congolese opposition leader was shot dead in France, his lawyer said.

Daniel Forestier, 57 years old and living in the Alps, in eastern France, was found dead last Thursday in an isolated car park in the small town of Ballaison, near Lake Geneva.

Cédric Huissoud, his lawyer, had received five bullets, including a bullet in the head and heart, at AFP.

Forestier and another former French intelligence agent, the DGSE, were charged with "criminal conspiracy" and "possession of explosives" last September for conspiracy to kill. General Ferdinand Mbaou, exiled in France for about 20 years.

Forestier worked 14 years at the DGSE. He lived in the small town of Lucinges, near the Swiss border, where he had sat at the town hall and ran a café.

In October, Mbaou told AFP that he was angry at the conspiracy reported, but "not surprised".

Like a number of opponents of the President of the Republic of Congo, Denis Sbadou Nguesso, based in France, Mbaou thinks he was targeted for criticizing one of the Africa's oldest leaders, since what he thought was a safe distance.

The general, aged 62, is known for his virulent attacks on Sbadou Nguesso, who for 35 years has been leading the former French colony and oil – rich Central African country of 4.5 million people. inhabitants.

Mbaou fled Congo after the overthrow of his former president, the first president of the democratically elected country, Pascal Lissouba, by Sbadou Nguesso in 1997.

He had already survived an attack.

Mbaou thinks it's the scheme that sent the killer in the back while he was leaving his home in Bessancourt, north of Paris, in November 2015.

The ball is still lodged in his chest.

"The doctors have not been able to remove it because it's in a difficult place, close to the heart," he told AFP.

No one has ever been charged for the attack.