Gabon Court Rejects Call for Health Check of PresidentA Gabonese court has thrown out a bid by opposition activists to force President Ali Bongo Ondimba to have medical checks to see whether he is still fit to rule. \n\nThe court in Libreville rejected the request as "inadmissible," according to the ruling seen Saturday by AFP. \n\nOnly the government or the two chambers of parliament had the power to go to the Constitutional Court to get a ruling removing the president from power, it said. \n\nBut the activists behind the legal bid denounced the ruling. \n\n"This judgment reinforces our doubt about the capacity of Ali Bongo to still carry out his presidential duties," activist Marc Ona, who leads one of the groups behind the bid, said. \n\nBongo spent five months abroad in Morocco, recovering from a stroke he suffered Oct. 24 while visiting Saudi Arabia. \n\nDuring that period, he returned to Gabon twice, his long absence stoking concern about a power vacuum. A brief attempted coup by renegade soldiers in January was quickly ended. \n\nBut on his return to Gabon at the end of March, some opponents of the president called for a judicial inquiry into his state of health. \n\nThursday's court decision appears to have blocked that bid. \n\nAli Bongo has ruled the oil-rich central African country since 2009, following the death of his father, Omar Bongo, who had ruled since 1967.