France confiscates $5.2m property belonging to son of president

French prosecutors probing suspected “ill-gotten gains” hidden in France, on Friday, revealed the seizure of a house in Paris discovered to belong to the son of the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The office of the National Financial Prosecutor was said to have disclosed that the property located in Neuilly-sur-Seine, linked to Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso, “was seized in June”.

The French authorities said that “Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso has so far not been charged”.

Police documents were quoted to reveal that the townhouse was bought in 2009 at the cost of 5.2 million euros ($5.2 million) before being renovated at a further cost of 5.4 million and identified as home to Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso and his family.

An investigation by the OCRGDF serious financial crimes unit was cited to have revealed that one of the owners of the property holding company that owns the building was identified as the Congolese minister’s chief of protocol, known to be one of Sassou Nguesso’s “strawmen”.

Lawyer to Sassou Nguesso, Jean-Jacques Neuer, was quoted to have argued: “I’m outraged that France, with its history as a colonial and slave-holding great power, is now coming to lay blame at African leaders’ feet.

“Many very ill-gotten gains that belong to Africans are in French hands.”

Neuer declared that the investigation of the Congo president is “political and not judicial”.