FRANCE: Court allows probe into African presidents' alleged millions held in France

Record ID: 454411

  • Title: FRANCE: Court allows probe into African presidents' alleged millions held in France
  • Date: 10th November 2010
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (NOVEMBER 9, 2010) (REUTERS) VARIOUS UPMARKET PROPERTIES IN FASHIONABLE PARIS NEIGHBOURHOOD STREET SIGN FOR AVENUE FOCH, ONE OF FRANCE'S MOST PRESTIGIOUS AVENUES AVENUE FOCH VARIOUS APARTMENTS NEWS CONFERENCE GIVEN BY WILLIAM BOURDON, ACTING FOR TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL (SOUNDBITE) (French) WILLIAM BOURDON, ACTING FOR TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL, SAYING: "We're now going to have to trace the origins of the financing of these properties. That won't be very complicated, there are notarised acts, one only has to go to the land registry. I remind you that when the police were stopped in their tracks by the Paris prosecutor's office, they were on the verge of identifying the value of the assets and accounts belonging to the cousins and all the family. It'll be a long procedure and there will be obstacles, one can't keep everyone happy. But at a technical level there is no reason why there couldn't one day be a big trial of the heads of state, of their families and of their accomplices." (SOUNDBITE) (French) DANIEL LEBEGUE, PRESIDENT OF TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL FRANCE, SAYING: "This means that an investigating magistrate should now be appointed, will open an investigation, carry them out to see if there has been any misuse of public funds to build in France a private heritage. That's the object of our action." (SOUNDBITE) (French) OLIVIER PARDO, ACTING FOR EQUATORIAL GUINEAN PRESIDENT TEODORO OBIANG, SAYING: "This is a decision, which contrary to what was said by the prosecutor in the Court of Cassation (France's Supreme Court). Why? Because it means that any lawyer acting for any group in France intent on fighting corruption can lodge a formal complaint against any head of state or whatever country in the world. That's what we call universal jurisdiction. Spain tried it, Belgium tried it and it's been a catastrophe and they backtracked." (SOUNDBITE) (French) ISABELLE THOMAS WERNER, ACTING FOR EQUATORIAL GUINEAN PRESIDENT TEODORO OBIANG, SAYING: "Why these countries? Why these heads of state? Because there are French influences. Why, because the NGOs are financed -- one must say it -- by Anglo Saxon funds, or at least in their majority. And those are questions that are going to have to be asked. And I hope that the courts will try to answer that question. Because as far as President Obiang is concerned, there is nothing. There is only one unfortunate villa in Ville d'Avray (west of Paris) that was bought in 1986 when there wasn't the rush for crude oil in Equatorial Guinea which is only very recent. So it's only now that people are interested and starting to criticise in President Obiang only now that there's the rush for oil and lots of international interests." VARIOUS PARIS STREETS ARC DE TRIOMPHE
  • Embargoed: 25th November 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France, France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAA9BYO4FRAGGBHPY9J5R0CQOSF
  • Story Text: France's highest court reopened the way on Tuesday (November 9) for a legal investigation into tens of millions of euros worth of assets held in the country by three African presidents or their families.
    The court overturned a Paris appeals court ruling rejecting a case lodged by non-governmental anti-graft organisation Transparency International that pressed for a judicial inquiry into the source of assets held in France by the presidential families of Gabon, Congo-Republic and Equatorial Guinea.
    Tuesday's ruling by the higher court allows the matter to be pursued by an investigating magistrate.
    "It'll be a long procedure and there will be obstacles, one can't keep everyone happy. But at a technical level there is no reason why there couldn't one day be a big trial of the heads of state, of their families and of their accomplices," said lawyer William Bourdon, acting for Transparency International.
    A police inquiry in 2007 listed dozens of French properties, bank accounts and luxury cars including Bugattis, Ferraris and a Rolls-Royce among assets held in France by the three presidential families.
    At the time, President Denis Sassou-Nguesso of Congo, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea and Omar Bongo, Gabon's then president and the father of President Ali Ben Bongo, denied any wrongdoing.
    The case has threatened to strain French diplomatic and business ties with Gabon and Congo, two former colonies, and with Equatorial Guinea, a growing oil exporter.
    Lawyers acting for Equatorial Guinea's president, Teodoro Obiang, slammed the move as an Anglo-Saxon plot in countries where France has a traditionally strong influence.
    "Why these countries?" said lawyer Isabelle Thomas Werner. "Why these heads of state? Because there are French influences. Why, because the NGOs are financed -- one must say it -- by Anglo-Saxon funds, or at least in their majority. And those are questions that are going to have to be asked."
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