France and Equatorial Guinea before the International Court of Justice about a Parisian mansion

France. Similarly, Equatorial Guinea will compete Tuesday July 15 before the highest court of the United Nations, a new chapter in a long legal battle concerning a luxurious Parisian mansion confiscated by the French authorities.

This West African country has asked the International Court of france equatorial guinea before international Justice (CIJ) to make emergency orders against France concerning the building. In addition, seized after the French justice condemnation of the Equatorial Guinean vice-president, Teodoro Nguema Obiang, for corruption.

The French authorities confiscated this property. Nevertheless, which includes a cinema, a hammam and sanitary facilities in marble and gold, after having condemned the vice-president, commonly called Teodorin, under a law aimed at the fortunes fraudulently acquired by foreign leaders.

In 2021. Meanwhile, French justice inflicted on Teodorin, the eldest son of Teodoro Obiang Nguema, president of Equatorial Guinea since 1979, a sentence of three years in suspended prison and 30 million euros fine. Moreover, France has. within the framework of the execution of this judgment, seized of goods, including the luxurious building on avenue Foch in Paris, of an estimated value of more than 100 million euros.

Residence or embassy?

In its last france equatorial guinea before international request to the CIJ. Equatorial Guinea said last week that the French police had entered the property last month and changed the locks from several doors. Equatorial Guinea has asked the ICJ to order France to give it “Immediate access. complete and without hindrance” to the building. The lawyers of Equatorial Guinea will address the court judges, which sits in The Hague, around 10 am (8 am GMT). France will respond from 4 p.m.

The mansion was already at the heart of a previous case presented by Equatorial Guinea in 2016 in front of the CIJ. which rules on the disputes between the member states of the UN. This country argued that the building served as a embassy in France. that Paris had violated the Vienna Convention, which protects diplomats against any interference from the host states.

But the CIJ had agreed to France. according to which the building was only the residence of Teodorin, without a diplomatic vocation. The Court retained the objections of France according to which Equatorial Guinea had tried to designate it as such that after the start of the investigation into Teodorin. that it already had an embassy in Paris.

A request for an emergency order – conservatory measures. in the jargon of the courtyard – takes precedence over any other judicial case. The CIJ is currently dealing with several important files. including a highly publicized case brought france equatorial guinea before international by South Africa against Israel, accused of genocide in the Gaza Strip.

This court should also make a highly anticipated opinion on the obligations of countries in terms of climate change. CIJ’s decisions are binding, but it has no way to apply them. For example, she ordered Russia to stop her invasion of Ukraine, in vain.