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Son of Equatorial Guineas president- Ruslan Obiang Nsue has been arrested and placed under house arrest. The charge against him is an allegation of selling a plane belonging to the country’s national airline.
Son of Equatorial Guinea’s president- Ruslan Obiang Nsue has been arrested and placed under house arrest. The charge against him is an allegation of selling a plane belonging to the country’s national airline.
The plane went missing in last November and authorities opened an investigation after noticing the disappearance of the ATR 72-500 aircraft belonging to the national company. The aircraft was in routine maintenance in Spain. Analysts say the arrest of the president’s sons is unprecedented in Africa.
Equatorial Guineas is a small oil-rich central African state. The country has been ruled for more than 43 -years by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has just been re-elected for a sixth seven-year term. He holds the world record for longevity in power for a living head of state, excluding monarchs. Equatorial Guinea is the third richest country in sub-Saharan Africa in terms of GDP per capita in 2021.
Ruslan Obiang Nsue, former secretary of state for sports and youth, and current director of Ceiba Airport was the first deputy director of Ceiba Intercontinental. Later, he became its managing director. Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, who is the half-brother of the accused said that Ruslan Obiang has confessed that he was the person who sold Ceiba’s ATR, adding that he would not allow himself to be carried away by family considerations or favouritism.
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Teodorin Obiang himself was caught up in several controversies. He was sentenced by the French justice in July 2021 to three years in prison with a suspended sentence and 30 million euros in fines and the confiscation of his assets in France for having fraudulently built up a luxurious patrimony with ill-gotten gains. Importantly, London also froze his financial assets in the U.K. and banned him from its territory following anti-corruption investigations.
