ICJ: Equatorial Guinea Files Case Against France For Misappropriation Of Public Funds

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday said proceedings have started in a case filed by Equatorial Guinea against France over misappropriation of public funds and related to charges that France had not followed up its obligations over fighting corruption, reported The Reuters.

The latest case is linked to the conviction, upheld at appeal last year, in France of Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, the son of Equatorial Guinea’s long-serving president.

The French prosecutors accused Obiang of spending millions of dollars in France with funds generated from corruption, embezzlement and extortion in his country.

The French court handed him a three-year suspended sentence, fined him 30 million euros and ordered seizure of his property in France worth tens of millions of euros including the mansion on Avenue Foch, which France is now planning to sell.

According to the Hague-based ICJ, Equatorial Guinea claims that it has made requests, based on a United Nations anti-corruption convention, to recover certain assets corresponding to Obiang’s properties confiscated by France, but, the French government has not responded to the requests.

So, the African country went on to file a case against France on Thursday.

The court said Equatorial Guinea argues that by disregarding the request, France has violated its obligations under the Convention.

The African nation wants the court to rule that France is breaching the U.N. convention and to order France to return to Equatorial Guinea all property that is the subject of a recovery request from Equatorial Guinea.

It has also asked the ICJ to impose an immediate ban on the sale of the mansion on the broad avenue leading to the Arc de Triomphe.