UN Court To Rule On E.Guinea Case Against France

THE HAGUE, Dec 2, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 02nd Dec, 2016 ) - The UN's top court will Wednesday rule on a request by Equatorial Guinea that France be ordered to suspend the trial of the president's son.

The ruling will be read at the International Court of Justice on Wednesday at 3:00 pm (1400GMT) by its vice president Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, the court said in a statement. Teodorin Obiang, the 47-year-old son of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea's veteran ruler, is to go on trial in France next month on charges of plundering his country's coffers to fund a jet-set lifestyle.

Promoted by his father Teodoro Obiang Nguema to vice president in June, Obiang is accused of using the proceeds of corruption and embezzlement to fund an array of purchases, from a luxury home, to private jets and top properties, to pop star Michael Jackson's famous white glove.

The trial will be the first arising from a series of landmark investigations in France into the allegedly ill-gotten gains of a handful of African leaders. But the African nation filed a case before the ICJ in The Hague in June, maintaining that Obiang has diplomatic immunity.

It then filed an urgent request arguing that Obiang's case cannot proceed in French courts until the ICJ has ruled on whether France breached his right to immunity. The ICJ will rule Wednesday on whether France should suspend the legal proceedings until the case in The Hague is complete.