A court in Equatorial Guinea has convicted Ruslan Obiang Nsue, one of the sons of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, for illegally selling off a plane belonging to the country’s national airline.
According to Supreme Court press director Hilario Mitogo, the judge ruled on Tuesday that Obiang Nsue must serve six years in jail unless he repays the state for the missing aircraft.
The 50-year-old, a former director of national carrier Ceiba Intercontinental, was found guilty of selling an ATR 72-500 plane to a Spanish company and pocketing the proceeds.
He had been placed under house arrest in 2023 on the orders of his half-brother, Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, who is also the president’s son.
The court stated that Nsue could avoid jail if he pays about $255,000 to the airline in addition to damages and a fine to the state. He was, however, acquitted of separate charges of embezzlement and abuse of office.
Beyond his role in the airline, Nsue has previously served as Secretary of State for Sports and Youth in the oil-rich central African nation, which has been under the rule of his father, now 83 years old, for the past 46 years.
This conviction comes as part of a wider crackdown on corruption within the Obiang family. In a separate case, a French court had in July 2021 convicted his half-brother, Vice President Obiang Mangue, of embezzling public funds, handing him a suspended jail sentence and a $35 million fine.
