The playboy son of Equatorial Guinea’s leader was handed a
30-million-euro fine by a Paris court Monday on top of a suspended jail term
and the confiscation of his assets for embezzling public funds.
Teodorin Obiang, the son of Equatorial Guinea’s leader Teodoro
Obiang Nguema, was found guilty in 2017 of having plundered his country’s state
coffers to fund a jet-set lifestyle in Europe.
At the time, he was handed a three-year jail term as well as
the 30-million-euro ($32.9 million) fine — both suspended.
Obiang, who is also vice president, challenged that penalty
only to have the Paris appeals court return a heavier sentence on Monday by
removing the suspended provision from the fine.
It confirmed his conviction on a range of laundering charges
— relating to embezzling of public funds, misuse of corporate assets and breach
of trust — and upheld the lower court’s order for his ill-gotten assets to be
confiscated.
The president’s son, fond of fast cars and Michael Jackson
memorabilia, was not in court for the ruling, just as he had not attended his
initial trial.
Prosecutors estimate he laundered 150 million euros in
misappropriate funds in France.
The 50-year-old owns a six-storey, 107-million-euro mansion
in an upscale part of Paris, complete with a hammam, a disco and gold-plated
taps.
When investigators first raided the home, they hired trucks
to haul away a fleet of Bugattis, Ferraris, a Rolls-Royce Phantom and other
cars as evidence.
The fate of his residence, which was also seized by French
authorities, remains unclear after Monday’s ruling, as Obiang’s lawyers have
lodged an appeal with the International Court of Justice to claim the property
should be offered the same protections as other diplomatic buildings.
A hearing is scheduled to take place in The Hague next week.
Obiang has said his money came from legitimate sources.
His lawyers accused France during his trial of “meddling in
the affairs of a sovereign state”. Relations between the two nations have been
strained over the case.
“It is another step in a legal marathon,” William Bourdon, a
lawyer for one of the NGOs to have initiated the case, Transparency
International, said of Monday’s ruling.
“It is a strong and powerful signal to those who believe
that a culture of impunity is the indispensable means to organise and maintain
a system of predation of public resources in Africa or elsewhere.”
Obiang could still lodge a final challenge to the Cour de
Cassation, France’s highest appeals court for criminal cases.
He was agriculture and forestry minister before being
promoted by his father to vice president, putting him in pole position to take
over the leadership one day.
Africa’s only Spanish-speaking nation, Equatorial Guinea is
the continent’s third-biggest oil producer but more than half of its 1.2
million population live below the poverty line.
It is regularly accused by human rights groups of
corruption, repressive laws, extrajudicial killings and torture.
Obiang Nguema overthrew his uncle Francisco Macias Nguema in
a bloody coup in August 1979 and became president a few months later.
He has since seen off at least half a dozen assassination or
coup attempts to become Africa’s longest-serving leader.
The latest of them, in December 2017, reportedly involved a
group of men from Chad, Central African Republic and Sudan.
The French court case, initiated by anti-corruption NGOs, is
one of three involving families of African leaders which campaigners hope
signals a new willingness of French authorities to tackle money laundering.
The families of late Gabonese leader Omar Bongo and the
Republic of Congo’s President Denis Sassou Nguesso are also under investigation
for embezzlement.
Paris has long been a favoured destination for the
ill-gotten gains of wealthy figures linked to political leaders in Africa,
particularly in France’s former colonies.
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