FRANCE/FILE: Anti-corruption agency files suit in Paris against three African presidents

Record ID: 452299

  • Title: FRANCE/FILE: Anti-corruption agency files suit in Paris against three African presidents
  • Date: 6th December 2008
  • Summary: BRAZZAVILLE, CONGO REPUBLIC (FILE - JUNE 24, 2007) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF VOTING CENTRE CONGO REPUBLIC PRESIDENT DENIS SASSOU NGUESSO ENTERING WITH HIS WIFE ANTOINETTE SASSOU NGUESSO NGUESSO PUTTING BALLOT INTO BOX WITH HIS WIFE NGUESSO AND WIFE SIGNING REGISTER
  • Embargoed: 21st December 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA4G0IPCU60EZCSCI5MF4VXSRDS
  • Story Text: French anti-corruption campaigners filed a suit against three African heads of state on Tuesday (December 2), accusing them of buying properties in France that could not be financed with their official earnings.
    The French chapter of Transparency International, a Berlin-based independent watchdog, and Gregory Ngbwa Mintsa, a private citizen of Gabon, filed a suit against Presidents Omar Bongo of Gabon, Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo Republic and Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea.
    The suit is intended to force the French justice system to look into how they were able to buy huge real estate portfolios.
    "There are certain heads of state who have been in power for a very long time, decades. They consider themselves untouchable and above the law. Our objective is to remind them of the law, and to make sure that this public money, which was embezzled in order to enrich certain people, is returned to the people it belongs to, the citizens of these countries,"
    said Daniel Lebegue, President of Transparency International France.
    A Transparency International press release says that Gregory Ngbwa Mintsa has been pressured by "certain members of the Gabonese government" to end his involvement in the case.
    "There is a Gabonese citizen, extremely courageous and determined, who has maintained his complaint with us right to the end, despite the fact that he has been the object of very specific threats," said Lebegue.
    Omar Bongo, who came to power in Gabon in 1967, is Africa's longest-serving head of state. Obiang Nguema Mbasogo took power in Equitorial Guinea after a coup d'etat in 1979. Denis Sassou Nguesso also seized power in Congo Republic in a 1979 coup but was voted out of office in 1992. He returned to power in 1997 after a civil war, and has ruled the country ever since.
    A 2007 French police probe, details of which were leaked to media earlier this year by judicial sources, revealed that Bongo and his relatives owned 39 properties in France, mostly in the rich 16th district of Paris, as well as 70 bank accounts and nine cars. The properties also include luxury villas on the Riviera.
    "We have been able to identify the contents of their private holdings, in particular buildings and villas in Paris and the surrounding area as well as on the Côte d'Azur in the south of France. The estimated value of these holding is around 160 million euros," said Lebegue.
    The French police also established that Sassou Nguesso and his family owned 24 apartments and had 112 bank accounts in the country, while Obiang and his relatives had one apartment and eight cars.
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