{{President Denis Sassou-Nguesso on Monday said, following a meeting with French counterpart Francois Hollande, that French justice had no right to investigate his alleged ill-gotten wealth.}}
“What we would like to recall is the principle to which we all subscribe on the international level, which is that of non-interference in the internal affairs [of other countries],” President Sassou-Nguesso told journalists after more than an hour of talks with Hollande..
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, Gabon’s late president Omar Bongo, Equatorial Guinea president Teodoro Obiang Nguema, and 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 Cour de Cassation (Supreme Court) upheld this complaint over a lower court.
However, Sassou-Nguesso said Monday that the principle of non-interference should be “respected so that French justice does not feel it has the right to deal with matters that relate to the internal affairs of other states.”
Asked by a journalist whether he had lost any sleep over the affair, the leader of the oil-rich central African country replied, “Certainly not!”
NMG
Leave a Reply