Court Convicts Ruslan Obiang Nsue for Illegally Selling National Airline’s ATR 72-500
A court in Equatorial Guinea has sentenced Ruslan Obiang Nsue, one of the sons of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, to six years in prison after convicting him of illegally selling an aircraft belonging to the country’s national airline.
The ruling, delivered on Tuesday, found Obiang Nsue guilty of selling a Ceiba Intercontinental ATR 72-500 plane to a Spanish company and diverting the proceeds for personal use. He had served as director of Ceiba Intercontinental, the state-owned carrier, at the time of the transaction.
According to Supreme Court press director Hilario Mitogo, the judge ruled that Obiang Nsue, 50, could avoid serving the prison term if he reimburses the airline approximately $255,000, in addition to paying damages and a fine to the state.
The court, however, acquitted him of separate charges of embezzlement and abuse of office. Obiang Nsue, who has previously held the post of secretary of state for sports and youth, was first placed under house arrest in 2023 on the order of his half-brother, Vice-President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue.
Equatorial Guinea, a small but oil-rich nation in Central Africa, has been under the rule of President Obiang Nguema, 83, for nearly five decades, making him the world’s longest-serving leader.
In a related development, Obiang Nsue’s half-brother, Vice-President Obiang Mangue, was convicted in France in July 2021 of embezzling public funds. The French court handed him a suspended prison sentence and imposed a $35 million fine.
