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Equatorial Guinea’s vice-president personally ordered the arrest of his half-brother over allegations he sold a plane owned by the state airline, a government statement says.<\/p>\n
Both the vice-president and his half-brother are sons of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mangue.<\/p>\n
He is the world’s longest-serving president after 43 years in power.<\/p>\n
Vice-President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue “expressed indignation” over the sale, the statement said.<\/p>\n
Ruslan Obiang Nsue, a former director of the Ceiba International airline, sold the ATR72-500 without the approval of the company’s board to a Spanish company, authorities say.<\/p>\n
It is also alleged he pocketed the proceeds of the sale. He has not publicly commented on the allegations.<\/p>\n
His half-brother ordered him to be put under house arrest and then transferred “to judicial custody,” the statement said.<\/p>\n
“In addition, Nguema Obiang Mangue has proposed that the head of state suspend him from all his functions in the state company, for orchestrating the sale of the ATR72-500,” it continued.<\/p>\n
An investigation was ordered last year after an aircraft disappeared while undergoing maintenance in Spain, according to local media.<\/p>\n
President Obiang has a strong grip on the oil-rich central African nation, with several family members in key government roles.<\/p>\n
He seized power in 1979 from his uncle in a military takeover and has survived several coup attempts.<\/p>\n
The long-time ruler started his sixth term in office last December after securing almost 95% of the votes in the previous month’s elections. Critics say the ballot was not free and fair, but Mr Obiang celebrated the victory, saying it showed his party was “great”.<\/p>\n
His eccentric son, who also serves as vice-president, is reportedly being groomed to succeed President Obiang.<\/p>\n
The vice-president, known as “Teodorin” has enjoyed a lavish lifestyle in the US and Europe, and even owns an expensive crystal-covered glove which was once owned by Michael Jackson, according to the UK authorities.<\/p>\n
In 2014, US authorities seized a $30m (\u00a324m)- mansion in Malibu and other assets, included a Ferrari car, saying they had been brought with the proceeds of corruption.<\/p>\n
Two years later, Swiss prosecutors seized 11 luxury cars belonging to him. The cars – among them a Bugatti, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Bentleys and Rolls Royce – were sold at an auction for about $27m.<\/p>\n
He was also fined and handed a suspended sentence by a French court in 2021 for using public money to fund a luxurious lifestyle in the European nation. He denied wrongdoing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Equatorial Guinea’s vice-president personally ordered the arrest of his half-brother over allegations he sold a plane owned by the state airline, a government statement says. Both the vice-president and his half-brother are sons of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mangue. He is the world’s longest-serving president after 43 years in power. Vice-President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":184112,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10221280388112155_325455220908133":"","twitter_917774835383787521_917774835383787521":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184111"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184111"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184114,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184111\/revisions\/184114"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}