A court in Equatorial Guinea has sentenced Ruslan Obiang Nsue, one of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo’s sons, to six years in prison for illegally selling a plane belonging to the state-owned airline, Ceiba Intercontinental.
The judge ruled on Tuesday that Ruslan Obiang Nsue, one of the sons of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, must serve six years in jail unless he compensates the state for the missing the ATR 72-500 aircraft to a Spanish company and kept the proceeds for himself, Supreme Court press director Hilario Mitogo told reporters in a WhatsApp message.
The judgment, however, allows Obiang Nsue to avoid prison if he repays about $255,000 to the airline in addition to fines and damages owed to the state.
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He had been under house arrest since 2023 on the orders of his half-brother, Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, who also happens to be a son of the president. The court cleared him of separate charges of embezzlement and abuse of office.
Obiang Nsue previously served as secretary of state for sports and youth. His conviction adds to a series of corruption scandals involving members of the ruling family in the oil-rich central African nation, which has been under the leadership of President Obiang for 46 years