Ruslan Obiang Nsue, one of the sons of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, was arrested on Monday (January 16th) and placed under house arrest on suspicion of having sold a plane from the national airline of Equatorial Guinea, television announced on Tuesday. State, the TVGE.
At the end of November, the authorities opened an investigation “after noting the disappearance of the ATR 72-500 aircraft belonging to the national company”, Ceiba Intercontinental, which had been undergoing a routine overhaul in Spain since 2018, explains TVGE. According to the same source, Mr. Obiang Nsue allegedly “sold the ATR aircraft to Binter Technic”specialized in aeronautical maintenance and based in Las Palmas, on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria.
Former Secretary of State for Sports and Youth, Ruslan Obiang Nsue, current director of Ceiba Airport, was first deputy director of Ceiba Intercontinental then its general manager. “Ruslan Obiang confessed that he was the person who sold Ceiba’s ATR, I’m not going to get carried away with familialism or favoritism, that’s why I’ve ordered his immediate arrest and release of Justice “said on Twitter his half-brother, Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, nicknamed “Teodorin”.
“Ill-gotten gains”
Teodorin Obiang was himself definitively sentenced by the French courts, at the end of July 2021, to a three-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of 30 million euros and the confiscation of his property in France for having constituted himself there fraudulently. a luxurious heritage in the context of “ill-gotten gains” cases. In July 2021, London also froze his financial assets in the UK and banned him from its territory following anti-corruption investigations. Malabo then closed its embassy in the country to protest against this decision.
The arrest of Ruslan Obiang Nsue is unprecedented for a member of the presidential family of this small oil-rich Central African state. Last December, news of the plane’s disappearance and alleged sale by Mr. Obiang Nsue sparked national outrage.
Equatorial Guinea has been led for more than forty-three years by Teodoro Obiang, who has just been re-elected for a sixth seven-year term and holds the world record for longevity in power for a living head of state, excluding monarchs. It is the third richest country in sub-Saharan Africa by GDP per capita in 2021, according to the World Bank, but it is ranked 172e globally ranked out of 180 in Transparency International’s Corruption Barometer.