The Paris Court of Appeal on Thursday, June 3, confirmed the seizure of a jet belonging to Congolese President Denis Sassou-Nguesso. The case dates back to June last year: the plane, a Falcon 7X, had been immobilized at the request of the company Commissimpex, which for decades has demanded that Congo settle a debt of more than one billion euros.
This is a new legal setback for Congo-Brazzaville in this extensive case between President Denis Sassou-Nguesso and Mohsen Hojeij, who for several years has been chasing the assets of the Congolese state to recover its dated debt. Since 1992 and has continued to increase since then.
50,000 euros in damages
In June last year, the Lebanese businessman did so immobilize Falcon 7X, a jet stamped “Republic of the Congo” when it had just landed at Bordeaux airport. In the process, justice confirmed the legality of this attack. Since then, however, the Congolese state has multiplied the procedures for trying to get it to recognize that it is diplomatic property and is therefore protected as such in the name of the Vienna Convention. An argument rejected by the Court of Appeal, as in the first instance. On the first ground that the Vienna Convention applies only to property attached to the diplomatic mission of a State, in this case the Congolese Embassy in Paris, which is not the case.
The court also rejected the argument that a state apparatus would be “elusive”, which is also argued by lawyers for President Denis Sassou-Nguesso. In passing, it condemns the Republic of Congo to pay EUR 50 000 in damages to Commissimpex. Congo announces that it will defeat the Court of Cassation.
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