A court in Equatorial Guinea has sentenced Ruslan Obiang Nsue, son of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, to six years in prison for illegally selling a plane belonging to the country’s national airline.
According to Supreme Court press director Hilario Mitogo, the ruling, delivered on Tuesday, found the 50-year-old former director of Ceiba Intercontinental guilty of selling an ATR 72-500 aircraft to a Spanish company and pocketing the proceeds.
The court, however, gave Obiang Nsue the option of avoiding jail if he refunds about $255,000 to the airline, in addition to paying damages and a fine to the state. He was acquitted of separate charges of embezzlement and abuse of office.
Obiang Nsue, who has previously served as Secretary of State for Sports and Youth, was first placed under house arrest in 2023 by order of his half-brother, Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue.
The case is the latest in a series of corruption scandals involving the president’s family. In 2021, a French court convicted Obiang Mangue of embezzling public funds, handing him a suspended prison sentence and a $35 million fine.
President Teodoro Obiang, 83, has ruled the oil-rich Central African nation for nearly five decades, making him the world’s longest-serving head of state.
