Tuesday, July 15, were held before the International Court of Justice (CIJ), the public hearings concerning the request for indication of conservatory measures filed by Equatorial Guinea in the case relating to the request concerning the restitution of confiscated property within the framework of criminal procedures (Equatorial Guinea c. France).
In this case, Equatorial Guinea requests the return of the building located at 42 avenue Foch in Paris, confiscated by France. She bases her request on the United Nations Convention against Corruption of October 31, 2003, to which the two states are parties. This confiscation follows the final condemnation, on July 28, 2021, of the Equatoguinean vice-president Teodoro Nguema Obiang mango by French justice for money laundering. Among the measures pronounced in particular was the seizure of the hotel in question.
In accordance with article 41 of the status of the CIJ, which offers the Court “the power to indicate, if it considers that the circumstances require it, what conservatory measures of the right of each must be taken on a provisional basis”, the Equatorial Guinea asks the judges to be ordered from France to take “all the necessary measures so that the building is not put up for sale” and to “guarantee the Equatorial Guinea And without obstacle to the whole building ”. For its part, France requests that these conservatory measures be rejected.
After hearing the interventions of the representatives of the two states this Tuesday, July 15, the CIJ began the deliberations and will make a decision “in due course”.
As a reminder, the CIJ is the main judicial body of the United Nations (article 1 of the CIJ status), the mission of which is to settle, in accordance with international law, the disputes subject to it by the States Parties to its status (article 38 of the status of the CIJ).
Find the CIJ press release here.
