Teodorin Obiang: arrest warrant issued by French judges, report says
Teodorin Obiang’s father, Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang, at right, is welcomed by Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, center, on arrival in Madrid in November, 2006.
Reuters reports that judges in France have issued an international warrant for the arrest of the son of Equatorial Guinea’s president on money laundering charges.
Judges Roger Le Loire and René Grouman have found evidence showing that Teodorin Obiang, the minister of agriculture, may have bought real estate in France by fraud, the news agency said, citing “a judicial source.”
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The anti-corruption and environmental campaigners Global Witness accuse Teodorin Obiang and his father, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, of widespread corruption and plundering. The president is Africa’s longest serving leader, according to Reuters.
The organizatation says Obiang Sr “uses the country’s oil wealth to enrich himself and his family, while violently suppressing opposition and ignoring the suffering of ordinary Equatoguineans” and charges that Teodorin “ has spent millions of dollars on sustaining a playboy lifestyle in Europe and the U.S. while reportedly earning a government salary of only a few thousand dollars a month.”
Global Witness said last year that Teodorin had commission plans to build a “super yacht” valued at $380 million.
In 2009, they said Teodorin had purchased “a $33 million private jet, a $35 million Malibu mansion, speedboats and a fleet of fast cars using corruptly acquired funds,” all while the US government had failed to enforce laws that should have barred him from entering the US.
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After years of battle, this month the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization approved a prize sponsored by President Obiang despite the objections of human rights organizations.