The top UN court will rule Friday in a long-running dispute between France and Equatorial Guinea over a multi-million-euro Paris mansion seized during a corruption probe into the country’s vice-president.Equatorial Guinea has asked the International Court of Justice to issue emergency orders to prevent France selling the luxury building, also seized in 2012, which boasts a cinema, a spa, as well as marble and gold taps.The seizure of the building, with an estimated value well above 100 million euros, came as authorities were investigating vice-president Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, known as Teodorin, for corruption.In 2021, France’s top appeals court gave Teodorin, eldest son of longstanding President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, a three-year suspended sentence and 30 million euros ($35 million) in fines.Malabo has asked the ICJ to force France to “take all necessary measures to ensure that the building is not offered for sale” and allow “immediate, full and unimpeded access” to the mansion.They complained that French authorities entered the building in June, changing the locks and smashing security cameras. France’s approach “may be described as paternalistic and even neo-colonial”, Malabo’s ambassador to Paris, Carmelo Nvoco-Nca, told the court in hearings in July.”We cannot accept such disdain for our sovereignty from France,” said Nvoco-Nca.Diego Colas, legal adviser at the French foreign ministry, said in response that Equatorial Guinea’s case was “clearly ill-founded.””France regrets that at a time when the Court’s docket is so full of numerous major cases, Equatorial Guinea is once again soliciting your office, for the sole purpose of revisiting the issue of the building,” said Colas.A request for emergency orders — provisional measures, in the court’s jargon — takes precedence over all other court business.The ICJ is wrestling with a busy caseload, including a high-profile case brought by South Africa against Israel, alleging its actions in Gaza have breached the UN Genocide Convention.The court also issued a key ruling on countries’ climate change obligations in July.While the ICJ is the highest United Nations court, whose rulings are binding, it has no way of enforcing its decisions.For example, it has ordered Russia to stop its invasion of Ukraine — to no avail.
