NETHERLANDS: International Court of Justice rejects attempts by Guinea to recover more than 31 billion US dollars stolen from one its citizens in Congo

Record ID: 455153

  • Title: NETHERLANDS: International Court of Justice rejects attempts by Guinea to recover more than 31 billion US dollars stolen from one its citizens in Congo
  • Date: 30th May 2007
  • Summary: DELEGATION OF DR CONGO, TSHIBANGU KALALA AND OTHERS DELEGATION OF GUINEA, MOHAMED CAMARA AND MATHIAS FORTEAU (IN RED) MOHAMED CAMARA AND MATHIAS FORTEAU THE HALL OF JUSTICE PAINTING IN THE HALL OF JUSTICE JUDGES ENTER THE COURTROOM AUDIENCE STANDING JUDGES SIT DOWN AUDIENCE LISTENS THE BENCH OF JUDGES IN SESSION
  • Embargoed: 14th June 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Netherlands
  • Country: Netherlands
  • Topics: Legal System,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA2QJYZHMES6ZBUW6GU1Q19XOAQ
  • Story Text: Judges for the International Court of Justice, or ICJ, convened on Thursday (May 24) to pass judgement on a court case brought almost ten years ago and centering on a trade dispute thousands of kilometres (miles) away in west and central Africa.
    Many had hoped that the case would help improve the rights of private businesses on a continent often wracked by instability and war, but which is struggling to trade its way out of poverty.
    Convening in the Great Hall of Justice of the Peace Palace at the Hague, Netherlands, the court ruled that Guinea may bring a case against the Democratic Republic of Congo which Guinea says violated laws when detaining and expelling one of its citizens.
    The DRC was still Zaire when the case was first brought to court.
    Guinea claimed that its citizen, businessman Ahmadou Sadio Diallo, was unlawfully thrown in jail and stripped of his business, investments and money to the tune of 31 billion US dollars in the then Zaire in 1996.
    Guinea instituted proceedings against Zaire in 1998 by filing an application requesting the Court to "condemn the Democratic Republic of the Congo for the grave breaches of international law perpetrated upon the person of a Guinean national".
    According to the application, "Mr Ahamdou Sadio Diallo, a businessman of Guinean nationality, was unjustly imprisoned by the authorities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, after being resident in that State for thirty-two (32) years, despoiled of his sizeable investments, businesses, movable and immovable property and bank accounts, and then expelled."
    The application said Diallo "was pursuing recovery of substantial debts owed to his businesses by the State and by oil companes established in its territeroy and of which the State is a shareholder."
    The ICJ is the U.N.'s highest court, which settles disputes between nations and whose rulings are final and cannot be appealed.
    Judges ruled on Thursday that Guinea can proceed its case as far as it concerns protection of Diallo's rights as an individual and his rights as a partner of the companies, Africom-Zaire and Africontainers-Zaire.
    However Guinea cannot proceed its case on behalf of the rights of the two companies managed by Diallo, the ICJ's president Rosalyn Higgins said in her ruling.
    Congo had contested the ICJ's jurisdiction over Guinea's claims.
    Congo's representative Tshibangu Kalala said the defence had succeede by protecting Congo from having to repay 31 billion US dollars, but lawyer Mathias Forteau said after the hearing that the case had succeeded in establishing the rights of an individual businessman in another country and went "in the right direction".
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