Guinea sues France to stop selling of mansion in Paris

(MENAFN) Equatorial Guinea has launched a case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in an effort to block the sale of a luxury mansion in Paris, which the West African nation says it intends to reclaim, according to the court on Friday.

The case stems from the earlier conviction in France of Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue—the son of Equatorial Guinea’s president—who was found guilty of laundering public funds and misappropriating millions.

In 2017, a Paris court handed Teodoro Nguema a suspended prison sentence of three years and imposed a $35,336 million fine. The ruling also mandated the confiscation of several assets in France, including the high-value mansion located on Avenue Foch. A French appeals court upheld the decision in 2020.

The latest legal filing, submitted Thursday, argues that the case falls under protections granted by the UN Convention against Corruption, which came into force on October 31, 2003.

Equatorial Guinea claims it requested France, by June 27, 2025, to give assurances that it would not take any action that could “cause irreparable prejudice . . . or further aggravate the dispute or make it more difficult to resolve.” However, the country says France has not offered any such guarantees and could proceed with the sale at any time before the ICJ rules on the matter.

In its petition, Equatorial Guinea is urging the court to compel France to take all necessary steps to halt the sale of the mansion. It is also requesting that France provide full, immediate, and unrestricted access to the property and refrain from any actions that could worsen or prolong the dispute.

According to the ICJ statement, on June 18, 2025, French judicial police officials entered the building without notifying the occupants. During the unannounced entry, officers reportedly changed the locks on several doors.

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