FRANCE/FILE: Outcry at UNESCO plan to award prize sponsored by controversial African leader

Record ID: 574125

  • Title: FRANCE/FILE: Outcry at UNESCO plan to award prize sponsored by controversial African leader
  • Date: 16th July 2012
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (JULY 16, 2012) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF NEWS CONFERENCE DOCUMENTS OF ANTI-CORRUPTION GROUP SHERPA (SOUNDBITE) (French) WILLIAM BOURDON, LAWYER REPRESENTING TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL FRANCE, SAYING: "We have sufficient elements that we gave to the judge and the public prosecutor showing that this prize, said to be private, has been financed with public funding. We have records of bank accounts and we have been able to investigate financial transactions. We regret that the public prosecutor has not yet agreed on the possibility of the judges broadening their investigation." VARIOUS OF JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (French) WILLIAM BOURDON, LAWYER REPRESENTING TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL FRANCE, SAYING: "There is a wide range of judicial tools that should allow France to consider that starting today, Teodoro Obiang is declared a persona non grata, independently of the effects of the arrest warrant, and secondly, to say that if Obiang's lawyers argue that his designation as vice-president of his country constitutes something that is sanctioned by international law and by the French system, it is illegal."
  • Embargoed: 31st July 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA7AO4RMCZ1TTHN0K0677T15MGS
  • Story Text: A group of human rights and anti-corruption organisations on Monday (July 16) criticised plans by a UN agency to award a science prize sponsored by the leader of Equatorial Guinea.
    UNESCO is expected to award the Life Sciences Prize in Paris on Tuesday.
    But its sponsor, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has ruled Equatorial Guinea since 1979, has been accused by rights groups of squandering years of oil revenues from the tiny Gulf of Guinea nation and there have been several international investigations into his family's vast wealth.
    UNESCO voted in March to rename the three million USD President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo prize, bowing to pressure over the country's human rights record under Obiang.
    But campaigners say questions remain about the funding of the award.
    "We have sufficient elements that we gave to the judge and the public prosecutor showing that this prize, said to be private, has been financed with public funding. We have records of bank accounts and we have been able to investigate financial transactions. We regret that the public prosecutor has not yet agreed on the possibility of the judges broadening their investigation," said William Bourdon, a lawyer for two anti-corruption organisations.
    Bourdon said he welcomed the news of an arrest warrant issued in France against Obiang's son Teodorin Obiang, whose full name is Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue.
    But the anti-corruption organisation Transparency International, which filed the original legal complaint, said France should officially declare Teodorin a "persona non grata".
    "There is a wide range of judicial tools that should allow France to consider that starting today, Teodoro Obiang is declared a persona non grata, independently of the effects of the arrest warrant, and secondly, to say that if Obiang's lawyers argue that his designation as vice-president of his country constitutes something that is sanctioned by international law and by the French system, it is illegal," said Bourdon.
    On Friday, two French judges issued an arrest warrant for Teodorin, who is suspected of siphoning off state funds to buy real estate in France. Teodorin has denied any wrongdoing.
    His lawyer slammed the move as illegal and said that, according to the customs of international law, foreign officials had immunity from prosecution.
    The warrant means he is barred from entering France and may also face travel restrictions in his own country.
    He also faces similar money-laundering charges in the United States, where he owns property estimated at several tens of millions of dollars.
    As part of the money-laundering investigation, French police raided a building belonging to Equatorial Guinea in a wealthy area of Paris in February, where they seized millions of euros of artworks, jewellery and fine wines.
    The building was valued at 150 million euros and investigators say it housed a nightclub and hairdressers, suggesting it was not being used for diplomatic purposes.
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