By Ebi Kesiena
French prosecutors disclosed on Friday they had seized a house in the Paris suburbs connected to the son of the President of the Republic of the Congo, in a probe into suspected ill-gotten gains.
The property in upscale Neuilly-sur-Seine, linked to Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso, “was seized in June”, the office of the National Financial Prosecutor (PNF) confirmed after a report by investigative news site Mediapart.
However, they added that “Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso has so far not been charged”.
Citing police documents, Mediapart reported that the townhouse was bought in 2009 for 5.2 million euros ($5.2 million) before being renovated for a further 5.4 million, and was “definitely” home to Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso and his family.
One of the owners of the property holding company that owns the building is the Congolese minister’s chief of protocol, known to be one of Sassou Nguesso’s “strawmen”, the site added, citing an investigation by the OCRGDF serious financial crimes unit.
“I’m outraged that France, with its history as a colonial and slave-holding great power, is now coming to lay blame at African leaders’ feet,” Sassou Nguesso’s lawyer Jean-Jacques Neuer said.
“Many very ill-gotten gains that belong to Africans are in French hands,” he added.
Neuer insisted that the investigation of his client was “political and not judicial”.
A 2007 complaint by watchdogs prompted Paris anti-corruption investigators to look more closely into the dealings of Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso, a former paratrooper who first came to power in the central African nation in 1979.
He and his family, as well as the Bongo family in power in Gabon, are believed to have misused public funds to acquire property empires in France.
At least five members of the Nguesso family have come under investigation since 2017.
The Republic of Congo is also called Congo-Brazzaville to distinguish it from its larger neighbour, the Democratic Republic of Congo.
