The Falcon 7X of the President of the Republic of Congo, Denis Sassou-Nguesso, was sold in France at auction on Tuesday October 3 for more than seven million euros, according Radio France International.
The so called presidential plane which was registered under an individual’s name rather than the country’s was seized at Bordeaux airport in June 2020 after a long series of legal proceedings initiated for decades by the boss of the Commisimpex company, a Lebanese businessman, against the State of Congo.
The fact that a presidential plane is registered under Sassou Nguesso, rather than the Congo proves how this individual thinks the country is his private farm.
For nearly 40 years, Sassou-Nguesso has indeed exploited the country to the point where all his kids (not less than 10), grand kids and relatives are millionnaires if not billionaires in dollar. Whereas more than three-third of Congolese live in a precarious situation.
Coming back to the private plane seized and sold in auction by the Frech Justice, it was reported by RFI that The Congolese presidential plane was purchased by an anonymous buyer, in a few seconds, and to the great displeasure of the authorities in Brazzaville who expressed their grievances to the French ambassador.
Thierry Moungalla, spokesperson for the Congolese government, whose role has always been lying whenever the governement is caught redhanded was interviewed by David Baché about the situation.
“we expressed our dissatisfaction with the repetitive nature of vexatious procedures, procedures which, from our point of view, are in delicacy with common law and with all simply diplomatic practices, custom.” He declared.
After lying Mr. Moungalla, presented the public with a fake registration to prove that the plane belonged to the country althouhh the French Justice has proofs of an individual registration.
Disappointed by the fact that their government’s wrongdoings were exposed, Mr. Moungalla proned immunity to condone France for not preventing the ordeal from happening.
“A plane, which is a presidential plane, which is adorned with the Congolese flag, which bears the country’s coat of arms and which is for the exclusive use of the President of the Republic, should benefit from immunity like any property which falls under the sovereignty of each State, such as an embassy for example,” continues Mr. Moungalla.
“We followed the progress of the auction which seemed quite dubious to us, with only one bidder. This plane, in 5 minutes, was sold at a price well below its value. The Congolese State will exercise the means of appeal so that the right is declared. And on the other hand, we do not understand those who think or who suggest in a defamatory manner that the Congolese State would have bought back, as the gang says, this aircraft, no. This is not the case.”
According to Agence France Presse, the auction of this device manufactured by Dassault Aviation, and which should make it possible to compensate the company Commisimpex for unpaid public works, was ordered by the Bordeaux judicial court in December 2022 then confirmed in June 2023 by the court of appeal, with an initial price set at seven million euros.
The boss of Commisimpex, Mohsen Hojeij, a former close friend of President Sassou Nguesso, won several contracts between 1983 and 1986.
The contracts included the construction of a bridge or a village in particular. There is a lot of suspicion that the village might be Oyo, known by Congolese as the private village of the Nguessos.
But in 1986, after the collapse of oil prices, the economic situation in the Republic of Congo deteriorated and only part of the work was completed.
In 2000 and then in 2013, the International Court of Arbitration in Paris twice ordered Congo to compensate Mr. Hojeij’s company. Over the years, the sum claimed by the businessman has increased significantly, from around 100 million euros when the dispute began in 1992 to around 1.7 billion euros today.
Note that if Mr. Hojeij was Congolese he would have already been emprsoned or assassinated a long time ago because thousands of Congolese have paid a huge price for questioning or trying to fight this governement of dishonest people.