By RFIPublié on 08-12-2019Modified on the 08-12-2019 at 22:47

The appeal trial of Teodorin Obiang, son of the President of Equatorial Guinea and Vice President of this country, opens this Monday, December 8 in Paris. Convicted of money laundering, including corruption, he was sentenced to three years suspended sentence, a 30 million euro suspended fine and the confiscation of his property, estimated at more than 150 million euros.

The considerable heritage and lavish lifestyle of Teodorin Obiang in France are at the heart of this process. Among the long list drawn up by the judges of instruction, many luxury cars, crates of great wines, exceptional watches and above all, a building of 4,000 m2 in the very chic 16th arrondissement of Paris, estimated at 107 millions of euros.

Inside, art objects, gold taps but also a hairdresser and a discotheque. But the purchase of these goods could not be financed by the only official income of Teodorin Obiang had emphasized the investigators.

They noted that between 2004 and 2011, nearly 110 million euros from the Treasury of his country had credited his personal account. And that some purchases had been settled by Equatorial Guinean companies like Somagui Forestal, a logging company that was under his control when he was Minister of Forestry.

" Teodorin Obiang has always said that he has legally earned his money in his country. He is innocent, "his lawyer said in the first trial, unsuccessfully, since the court found him guilty of money laundering, including corruption and misappropriation of public funds.

Will the Court of Appeal confirm or not this first judgment, unprecedented in a case of ill-gotten property? This new wrestling court should in any case be played without Teodorin Obiang, who had never appeared in first instance.

► See also: Equatorial Guinea: ill-gotten power over ill-gotten gains

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