A court in Equatorial Guinea has convicted Ruslan Obiang Nsue, one of the sons of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, for illegally selling a plane belonging to the country’s national airline.
Supreme Court press director Hilario Mitogo confirmed the ruling in a message to reporters on Tuesday, stating, “The judge ruled that Ruslan Obiang Nsue must serve six years in jail unless he compensates the state for the missing aircraft.”
According to AFP, Obiang Nsue, 50, a former director of Ceiba Intercontinental, was found guilty of selling the airline’s ATR 72-500 plane to a Spanish company and pocketing the proceeds.
Nsue was formerly the deputy general manager of Ceiba Intercontinental before his dismissal. He also served as the Secretary of State for Sports and Youth.
Arrested in 2023, Nsue was placed under house arrest on the orders of his half-brother, Nguema Obiang Mangue, who is Equatorial Guinea’s vice president.
According to Mitogo, the court gave Obiang Nsue the option of avoiding prison if he pays approximately $255,000 to the airline, in addition to damages and a fine to the state.
Prosecutors are seeking an 18-year prison sentence and a fine of 500 million CFA Francs ($847,000) for the president’s son.
In November 2022, Equatorial Guinea authorities launched investigations after discovering the disappearance of an aircraft owned by the national airline, Ceiba Intercontinental.
The plane, an ATR 72-500, had been undergoing routine maintenance in Spain since 2018.
However, investigations revealed that the aircraft had been sold to a Spanish aircraft maintenance company, Binter Technic Company.
But he was acquitted on separate charges of embezzlement and abuse of office.
His conviction adds to the growing list of scandals surrounding the Obiang family, which has ruled the oil-rich central African nation for 46 years under President Obiang, now 83.
In a related case, a French court in July 2021 handed down a suspended jail sentence and a $35 million fine to Vice-President Obiang Mangue after convicting him of embezzling public funds.
