Equatorial Guinea has launched a case against France at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in a bid to halt the sale of a Parisian mansion it seeks to reclaim.
This legal action stems from the 2017 conviction of Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, son of Equatorial Guinea’s president, on charges of money laundering and embezzling public funds in France.
Nguema received a three-year suspended sentence and a €30 million fine from a Paris court.
The court also ordered the seizure of his French properties, including the mansion on Avenue Foch, valued at tens of millions of euros.
An appeals court upheld this conviction in 2020.
Equatorial Guinea’s lawsuit, filed Thursday, cites the UN Convention against Corruption as its basis.
The nation asserts that France has not provided assurances against selling the building before the ICJ can rule on the dispute’s merits, despite a request for such guarantees by June 27, 2025.
Equatorial Guinea is asking the court to compel France to take all necessary steps to prevent the mansion’s sale.
It also seeks immediate, unhindered access to the building and asks France to refrain from any actions that could worsen the dispute.
This follows an incident on June 18, 2025, when French judicial police reportedly entered the building without prior notice or occupants present and changed several locks.