28, July 2021
Equatorial Guinea: Of Obiang Nguema family, the Michael Jackson connection, the British and the French 0
The vice-president of Equatorial Guinea Teodorin Obiang was definitively condemned on Wednesday for having fraudulently constituted a luxurious patrimony in a section of the “ill-gotten gains” affair, after the rejection of his appeal by the Court of Cassation.
Obiang had been sentenced by the Paris Court of Appeal in February 2020 to three years in prison with a suspended sentence, 30 million euros in fines and the confiscation of all his assets seized for “laundering of misuse of social assets, embezzlement of public funds and breach of trust” between 1997 and 2011.
The United Kingdom has also imposed sanctions a few days ago against Teodorin Nguema Obiang, son of the country’s veteran president, for allegedly syphoning state assets into his own bank accounts.
The British government decided to freeze Obiang’s assets and bar him entry to the United Kingdom. According to authorities, the president’s son would have concluded corrupt contracting arrangements and solicited bribes to support his jet-setting lifestyle.
They claim he has splurged $500 million on mansions around the world, luxury cars and a collection of Michael Jackson memorabilia including a $275,000 crystal-covered glove that the singer wore on his 1987-89 “Bad” tour.
Source: Africa News
30, July 2021
ICC drops arrest warrant for Ivory Coast’s former first lady Simone Gbagbo 0
The International Criminal Court has dropped its arrest warrant for Ivory Coast’s former first lady Simone Gbagbo over post-election violence that killed thousands in 2010-2011, according to a decision made public Thursday.
Simone Gbagbo faced charges of crimes against humanity—including murder, rape, inhuman acts and persecution—following her husband’s refusal to hand over power to Alassane Ouattara, who won a 2010 election.
Over 3,000 people died in the unrest.
“The chamber considers it appropriate to decide that the warrant of arrest for Simone Gbagbo shall cease to have effect,” the court said in a seven-page ruling seen by AFP and dated July 19.
“Good news for Madame Simone Gbagbo… she can now travel freely throughout the world,” her lawyer Ange Rodrigue Dadje said in a statement sent to AFP.
In March, the ICC acquitted Laurent Gbagbo of crimes against humanity and he returned to Ivory Coast on June 17, after 10 years behind bars in The Hague, where the ICC is based, and then in Belgium.
Simone Gbagbo was not handed over to the ICC, but an Ivorian court sentenced her to 20 years in prison in 2015 for undermining state security.
She was freed on August 8, 2018 following a presidential amnesty.
President Ouattara and Laurent Gbagbo met on Tuesday for the first time in more than 10 years, after which Ouattara said that the turmoil was “behind us”.
However reconciliation was not on the cards for the Gbagbo couple—Laurent Gbagbo sought a divorce upon his return to Ivory Coast citing the 72-year-old Simone’s “consistent refusal over the years to agree to an amicable separation”.
They married in 1989 and have two daughters.
The 76-year-old Gbagbo currently lives with Nady Bamba, a 47-year-old former journalist.
Source: AFP