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Tuesday, January 3, 2017
Teodorin Obiang, the son of Equatorial Guinea’s longtime president, has been put on trial in absentia in France. Obiang, who is also the VP of Equatorial Guinea, is accused of misappropriation of funds from the country to finance a lavish lifestyle abroad.
The accused denies the charges of laundering embezzled public funds, which expose him to a sentence of 10 years in jail and huge fines if convicted.
Obiang’s lawyer requested that the trial be suspended on the grounds that his client had not been given enough time to properly prepare his defense in a complex case, having been summoned to trial just three weeks ago.
“We’re not talking about a moped theft charge,” Emmanuel Marsigny, his lawyer in Paris, told Reuters.
Among the acquisitions at the center of the trial is a large property bought for €25 million in 2005 in Paris, in addition to car collections and jewels. His assets were tallied at €100 million, far more than his salary of $80,000 per year would allow for at the time of the purchases.
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