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Congo President files complaint against judgement on attempted fraud case in France

Republic of the Congo

Reports say Congolese president Denis Sassou Nguesso has filed a complaint in France against judgement on a fraud case that links him with “ill-gotten gains”.

“I Denis Sassou Nguesso, Head of State of the Republic of Congo, declares that I have charged Mr. Viala, a lawyer at the court in Paris, to file a complaint against “X” for attempted fraud judgment that implicated me in a case of stolen assets,” said a brief statement from the Congolese President, typed and signed.

Transparency International, an NGO and a civil rights organisation, accused the Congolese head of state in this case of having hijacked national wealth for his own benefit and the benefit of his family and his clan. It particularly claims that he has grabbed a substantial part of Congo-Brazzaville’s oil income.

Two Parisian prosecutors have been investigating the conditions under which vast wealth – including French Riviera and Parisian residences, fleets of cars and other property – were acquired in France by Sassou Nguesso, as well as Gabon’s late president Omar Bongo and President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, as well as some of their close aides.

In 2008, the non-governmental organisations, Sherpa and Transparency International France filed a suit calling for an investigation into the origin of these luxury assets.

In 2010, the French supreme Court upheld this complaint over a lower court.

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