Issue 121 • 7 September 2007

UK High Court throws out Sassou Nguesso case

A London court has struck a blow in favour of campaigners fighting for more transparency in the way oil priducers use their funds.

The London High Court has thrown out an attempt by the Republic of Congo president’s son to block publication of evidence of shopping sprees that were apparently paid for out of the country’s oil wealth.

Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso is the son of President Denis Sassou Nguesso and head of state oil marketing company Cotrade.

In June, UK-based advocacy group Global Witness published documents from a Hong Kong court case which showed that he and another official spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on what seemed to be personal items, including designer brands. The bills were paid by companies that appear to have received, via other shell companies, money related to Congo’s oil sales

Sassou Nguesso and his company, Long Beach Ltd, sought a London court injunction to force Global Witness to remove his company records and credit card statements from its website.

Global Witness argues that the case has international implications because Congo was granted debt relief in March 2006 after promising the international community to clean up the management of its oil sector and end conflicts of interest by public officials, especially in the marketing of oil (AE 97/26).

The International Monetary Fund and World Bank agreed to let Congo reach the decision point for debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative. While expressing concerns about governance and financial transparency, they took the view that it was better to admit an African oil producer and engage with it than to exclude it and allow it to go the way of Angola and Equatorial Guinea – two other Global Witness campaign targets – who finance themselves through oil revenue, giving the international community almost no leverage on governance concerns.

The Congolese have established private marketing structures with the aim of protecting oil revenues from so-called vulture funds, who buy up debt cheaply on the secondary market and then sue debtor countries for payment.

Global Witness received the documents from Kensington International, which has been looking to recover Congolese debt and brought a case in the High Court in 2005 (AE 94/16).

In a judgement handed down on 15 August, Judge Stanley Burnton rejected Sassou Nguesso’s claim, ruling that there was “an important public interest in the publication of the specified documents and the information derived from them”.

He continued: “It is an obvious possible inference that his expenditure has been financed by secret personal profits made out of dealings in oil sold by Cotrade. The profits of Cotrade’s oil sales should go to the people of the Congo, not to those who rule it or their families.”