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FRENCH lawyers tried to convince the International Court of Justice (ICJ) today that it has no jurisdiction in a corruption case already completed in France.
Equatorial Guinea Vice-President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue was convicted by a Paris court in October of embezzling public money worth millions of pounds, handing him a three-year suspended prison sentence and a €30 million (£26.50m) suspended fine.
Mr Obiang Mangue, who did not attend the trial, denied the charges and defence lawyer Emmanuel Marsigny accused France of meddling in Equatorial Guinea’s domestic affairs.
The west African country has been trying since 2016 to invoke international conventions on diplomatic relations and organised crime to give the ICJ jurisdiction.
The country would then argue that Mr Obiang Mangue has immunity from prosecution because of his position as vice-president.
French representative Francois Alabrune told the court that those arguments were “wholly artificial.”
At a preliminary stage of the case in The Hague, the world court ruled that it appeared to have jurisdiction, but it will probably take months to reach a final decision.
