The international court of justice ICJ has ruled that france acted lawfully by seizing a multi million us dollar mansion initially owned by equatorial guinea’s vice president Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue on Friday September 12, 2025
ICJ’s presiding judge Yuji Iwasawa said Equatorial Guinea did not prove that it had plausible right to the return of the building from French authorities
In July Equatorial Guinea filed a petition at the court seeking to block France from selling the $118 million mansion. France however told the ICJ that there were no immediate plans to sell the mansion and therefore Paris and Malabo should resolve the matter through negotiation.
Equatorial Guinea’s lawyers however said France was patronizing and treated the African nation with disdain by disrespecting its sovereignty
Now here’s a brief history of the property dispute In July 2021 France’s top court ruled that a mansion in Paris belonging to Vice President Obiang be confiscated saying it was acquired through proceeds of corruption In government. the top court’s decision ended litigation that had lasted over a decade. After two lower courts ruled that the Equatorial Guinean vice president had illegally acquired the property.
57-year-old Obiang rejected the court’s findings The case against Obiang started in 2008 when he was agriculture minister. He was then appointed vice president in 2016 by his father president Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo When the matter which was pursued by French prosecutors reached France’s Apex Court .
The court ruled that Vice President Obiang used his position to pilfer Equatorial Guinea’s accounts and launder the money in France The court said the vice president bought a 101 room mansion on the exclusive avenue forsh in paris as well as a fleet of high end cars watches and designer clothes through a network of companies. The mansion in Paris has a cinema a large steam bath marble and gold water taps.
The court ordered that Obiang’s mansion be seized by French authorities ahead of a possible auction and the raised funds be repatriated to Equatorial Guinea to benefit the citizens there Obiang who protested the ruling said France had breached International law because it confiscated a property which was serving as Equatorial Guinea’s embassy in France Paris however said the building was merely Obiang’s residence and served no diplomatic purpose because the African nation had its embassy elsewhere in the French capital.
In its July 2025 suit against France at the ICJ Equatorial Guinea had asked the world court to issue emergency orders stopping the possible sale of the mansion confiscated from Obiang In the petition Equatorial Guinea also sought unhindered access to the building The ICJ’s recent ruling further complicates France’s engagements with Equatorial Guinea over the property
