RFI France

Omar Bongo. (Photo: AFP)

“Our objective is not directly to get people to be condemned. Our objective is to make effective [a] very important principle of international law and French law: the recovery and restitution of stolen public assets,” Daniel Lebegue of Transparency International, told RFI.

Transparency International, along with French NGO Sherpa and a Gabonese citizen, took action against President Omar Bongo Ondimba of Gabon, Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of Congo and Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea, as well as several other officials, they said in a joint statement.

Two similar suits filed against him Bongo Transparency against Bongo were earlier dismissed due to lack of evidence. The initial lawsuits also named President Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso and President Eduardo dos Santos of Angola.

Following the initial investigations, the police reported that Bongo and his family own 33 properties in France, including a building in Paris bought for 18.8 million euros. Sassou Nguesso owns at least three properties in the French capital.

The origin of the funds used to buy these estates was never established due to lack of proper warrants, the French press reported. This new case is intended to put pressure on French authorities to appoint an investigating magistrate who would be able to take the investigation further.

Focus on France 6 October 2008

Oil, arms and politics

2008-10-07 13:57 TU

Headlines

US/World economic crisis 

Madoff apologises and is jailed pending trial 

2009-03-12 15:42 TU

Iraq/US 

Baghdad shoe thrower gets three-year prison term 

2009-03-12 15:57 TU

Iraq - Interview 

War veterans continue campaign for full US pull-out from Iraq 

2009-03-13 06:36 TU

Madagascar 

Prime Minister meets "opposition Prime Minister" 

2009-03-12 18:06 TU

Pakistan 

Police arrest lawyers in Karachi as new long march begins

2009-03-12 14:54 TU

France 

French nuclear company Areva to allow Middle East investors 

2009-03-12 15:46 TU

US - interview 

Democrats fail to back Obama's intelligence chief pick 

2009-03-12 19:09 TU

Cuba/US 

Obama signs law easing travel to Cuba 

2009-03-12 09:17 TU

Zimbabwe 

MDC's Bennett released on bail 

2009-03-12 16:55 TU

Sudan 

Aid workers kidnapped in Darfur 

2009-03-12 17:15 TU