Equatorial Guinea court convicts President Obiang’s son over illegal sale of national airline plane
The case is the latest in a string of scandals involving the Obiang family, which has ruled the oil-rich Central African nation for more than four decades.
A court in Equatorial Guinea has convicted Ruslan Obiang Nsue, son of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, for illegally selling a plane belonging to the national airline, Ceiba Intercontinental.
The ruling was confirmed by the Supreme Court’s press director, Hilario Mitogo, who explained that Obiang Nsue could avoid a six-year prison sentence if he reimburses the airline $225,000 (approx. Sh29.1 million) and pays additional fines to the state.
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Prosecutors had initially sought an 18-year prison term and a fine of 500 million CFA francs (around Sh115 million).
Obiang Nsue, 50, who previously served as the airline’s deputy general manager and later as Secretary of State for Sports and Youth, was found guilty of selling an ATR 72-500 aircraft to Spanish maintenance firm Binter Technic Company and pocketing the proceeds.
Investigations into the missing plane began in November 2022, after authorities discovered that the aircraft, which had been in Spain for routine maintenance since 2018, had disappeared. The probe revealed that the sale took place without government approval.
House arrest
In 2023, Obiang Nsue was placed under house arrest on the orders of his half-brother, Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue. He was, however, acquitted of other charges, including embezzlement and abuse of office.
The case is the latest in a string of scandals involving the Obiang family, which has ruled the oil-rich Central African nation for more than four decades.
On Wednesday, a provincial court in Bioko sentenced another presidential relative, Baltasar Ebang Engonga, to eight years in prison for misappropriating public funds.
Engonga, a nephew of President Obiang and former head of the National Financial Investigations Agency, was found guilty of diverting money earmarked for official travel to personal use.
Alongside his prison sentence, Engonga was ordered to pay a fine of about $220,000 (Sh28.4 million), a significant sum even for the small but oil-rich country.
The case drew international attention after sex tapes leaked in November last year, showing Engonga with the wives of senior officials, with some of the recordings allegedly filmed in his office.
The Obiang family has long been embroiled in international legal battles. In 2007, France and the United States investigated Vice President Obiang Mangue for money laundering and misuse of public funds. The French case ended in a 2017 suspended jail sentence, a €30 million (Sh4.4 billion) fine, and the seizure of assets bought with public funds.
In the United States, a 2011 probe forced Obiang Mangue to surrender more than $30 million (Sh3.8 billion) in assets linked to similar allegations of misusing public money for personal gain.
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