E. Guinea leader’s son gets suspended jail term in Paris graft trial

PARIS: A French court handed down a three-year suspended jail term on Friday to the son of Equatorial Guinea’s leader, Teodorin Obiang, after a landmark graft trial that lifted the lid on his playboy Paris lifestyle.

The 48-year-old vice-president of the west African state, who was tried in absentia, was also given a suspended fine of 30 million euros (US$35 million) by judges for embezzlement, money laundering, corruption and abuse of trust.

The case, which was spearheaded by two anti-corruption groups, is the first of three targeting families of African leaders accused of using ill-gotten gains to live it up in France.

Obiang, the son of Equatorial Guinea’s president of 38 years, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, was accused of spending more than 1,000 times his official annual salary on a six-storey townhouse in a posh part of the French capital, a fleet of fast cars and artworks, among other assets.

Prosecutors argued he could not have funded the purchases without pilfering public money in his west African homeland.

They had called for him to be given a three-year jail term and a 30 million-euro (US$35 million) fine.

The court did not follow their recommendations on sentencing but did grant their request that his residence – which Equatorial Guinea protested was a diplomatic mission – and other assets be confiscated. Obiang denied the charges. During his three-week trial in June and July, his lawyers accused France of “meddling in the affairs of a sovereign state”.

The ruling is a victory for the French chapter of Transparency International France and its sister NGO Sherpa, which brought the complaint against Obiang.

“Every year billions of euros are embezzled to fund the profligate lifestyle of a few corrupt leaders abroad, particularly in France,” Transparency International said in a statement ahead of the ruling, adding that it aimed “to ensure that France is no longer a place to launder money.”

The families of two other longserving African leaders – late Gabonese leader Omar Bongo and the Republic of Congo’s President Denis Sassou Nguesso – are also being investigated in France for corruption.

Obiang was agriculture and forestry minister before being promoted by his father to vice president in 2012, putting him in pole position to succeed him as leader when the post becomes vacant. — AFP