A new setback for Equatorial Guinea in its legal standoff with Paris.

The international court ruled, Friday, December 11, in favor of France in the case of "ill-gotten gains".

"The building at 42 avenue Foch in Paris has never acquired the status of diplomatic mission of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea in the French Republic," said Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, President of the United Nations tribunal based in The Hague (Netherlands). 

The Central African country had dragged France to the ICJ, the highest court of the United Nations, after a raid in 2012 by French police on a luxury property in Paris as part of an investigation targeting Teodorin Obiang, son of the president Teodoro Obiang Nguema and vice-president responsible in particular for Defense and Security of his country. 

The property, worth 107 million euros, is located in one of the most exclusive areas of the French capital.

It has a cinema, a spa and golden taps, and would be the Equatorial Guinean embassy in France, according to Malabo.

Paris disputes this version and considers it to be the residence of Teodorin Obiang. 

Teodorin Obiang sentenced in France

The Paris Court of Appeal on February 10 sentenced Teodorin Obiang to three years in prison and a 30 million euro fine and confiscations, for having fraudulently built up a considerable heritage in France. 

Equatorial Guinea has denounced since the beginning of the case a violation of the immunity of Teodorin Obiang.

According to French justice, he looted the state coffers before buying luxury properties in the most expensive places in the world. 

Malabo had brought the dispute before the ICJ, which declared itself incompetent on this point in 2018. It had however declared itself competent to rule on the status as diplomatic premises of the avenue Foch building in Paris, seized by the French authorities in 2012. 

 With AFP

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