Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Northern Gaza is in ‘full-blown famine,’ World Food Program leader says

Confident of victory over Ukraine, Russia exhibits Western war trophies

Journalism in India is under assault

Teen grabs wheel when driver passes out and school bus veers into traffic

Cat climbed into Amazon return box, found alive 630 miles away

I learned to heal my sadness by cradling dying chickens 

What’s the best bus to New York? We tested 5 for comfort and value.

Adaptive equipment is making national parks more inclusive

You asked: Do I need a passport for my cruise?

In photos: At least 39 dead as historic flooding hits southern Brazil

Riot police and over 2,000 arrests: A look at 2 weeks of campus protests

Israel’s offensive is destroying Gaza’s ability to grow its own food

In a pinch, the Nationals finally find some offense

The Capitals, a team in transition, know what they want this offseason

Is Pastis as good as our food critic thought? He sent spies to find out.

Ask Amy: My boyfriend just confessed he’s almost $20,000 in debt

Miss Manners: Is it inappropriate to reach out to old girlfriends?

Carolyn Hax: Longtime friend won’t forgive being last-minute canceled for a guy

The ‘Access Hollywood’ video cemented Trump’s air of invincibility

The New York Times, alone in its outrage over access to Biden

Biden honors distinguished Americans; Trump back in N.Y. court

The Post endorses April McClain Delaney and Tom Royals for Maryland’s 6th District

On Press Freedom Day, little to celebrate for Hong Kong’s journalists

Young Georgians want to be part of Europe. Their government is in the way.

Biden expands health insurance access for DACA recipients

The grinding familiarity of the jocks-vs.-hippies proxy fight

Trump Media auditor charged by SEC with ‘massive fraud’

Google’s empire is massive. A judge will soon rule if it’s a monopoly.

NAIROBI — Even before the corruption trial of Equatorial Guinea’s vice president began in France this week, there was no shortage of publicity about the lavish lifestyle of Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue.

<a href="http://www.hebdo.ch/hebdo/projecteurs/detail/teodorin-obiang-se-fait-saisir-son-yacht">News reports</a> say he has enjoyed the use of two yachts worth an estimated $250 million — about twice his country's annual education budget in recent years.

There was also a $200 million mansion in Paris — worth more than double the nation’s public <a href="http://www.borgenmagazine.com/education-equatorial-guinea-budget-crisis/">health</a> expenditure.

Then there was his $10 million car collection — worth an enormous multiple of the country’s median income. In 2011, 77 percent of citizens in Equatorial Guinea lived on less than $2 dollars per day.

In a number of Africa’s poorest countries, those close to power have become rich even as their fellow citizens remain mired in poverty. But Obiang, who is the son of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea’s longtime president, <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4203526/Miss-Universe-Denmark-dethroned.html">stands out</a>.

Activists are hoping that Obiang's trial will help prove that corruption comes with consequences, even for Africa's political elite. Obiang is accused of using millions in public funds to bankroll his <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/teodoro-nguema-obiang-mangue-equatorial-guinea-playboy-life-2011-10?op=1/#odoro-is-a-snappy-dresser-he-reportedly-wears-versace-gucci-and-dolce-and-gabbana-and-once-bought-30-suits-on-a-shopping-spree-in-france-8">ostentatious</a> lifestyle in France, charges that carry a sentence of up to 10 years.

“By squandering enormous wealth the government has already missed opportunities to invest in health and education,” said a Human Rights Watch <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2017/06/15/manna-heaven/how-health-and-education-pay-price-self-dealing-equatorial-guinea">report</a> this month.

But when the trial <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/france-puts-equatorial-guinea-vice-president-on-trial/2017/06/19/7569b9f6-54d3-11e7-840b-512026319da7_story.html?utm_term=.6a1f8cc120b2">began</a> on Monday, Obiang, also known as Teodorin, did not appear in court — nor is he expected to travel to France for the proceedings. His lawyers say that he is immune from prosecution because of his position in government.

“It would be unprecedented in France, unprecedented in the world, to try a sitting vice president,” Thierry Marembert, one of Obiang’s lawyers, told the court. The defense attorneys have said that Obiang's financial dealings <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/04/world/africa/teodoro-nguema-obiang-mangue-guinea-looting-trial.html">were legitimate</a> under his country's laws, and defended his luxurious tastes. After the Dutch government seized the $100 million yacht Ebony Shine in December, acting on a request from Swiss prosecutors who <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-equatorial-swiss-idUSKBN12Y28B">suspect Obiang of money laundering</a>, the vice president's lawyers argued that the vessel belonged to the government of Equatorial Guinea, according to the <a href="http://www.maritime-executive.com/article/equatorial-guinea-tries-to-recover-dictators-yacht">Maritime Executive</a>, a trade publication. A second yacht linked to Obiang, the Ice, is also owned by that country's government, the publication reported. Obiang's attorneys have also argued the Paris mansion is a diplomatic mission — a claim the court has upheld.

In France, the trial is part of a series of inquiries known as the cases “of the ill-gotten gains.” Obiang’s case is the first to be heard in court, but other politicians from Congo, Angola and Burkina Faso face similar accusations.

Yet the alleged scale of Obiang’s spending — particularly compared to the development indicators in Equatorial Guinea — sets him apart. Even after oil was discovered in the West African country in the 1990s, the government used hardly any of its revenue to improve the lives of its citizens, analysts say.

In 2015, only 25 percent of newborns in the country were immunized for polio and measles, one of the lowest rates in the world. Life expectancy hovers around 57. About half the population lacks access to potable water. In 2012, 40 percent of children in Equatorial Guinea were not in school, according to Human Rights Watch. Statistics on government spending are limited, but the 2011 health and education budgets were a mere $92 million and $140 million, respectively, according to the<a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2017/06/15/manna-heaven/how-health-and-education-pay-price-self-dealing-equatorial-guinea"> Human Rights Watch report</a> — a small fraction of national income.

In 2014, Obiang <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/second-vice-president-equatorial-guinea-agrees-relinquish-more-30-million-assets-purchased">settled</a> a civil forfeiture case with federal prosecutors in the United States, agreeing to “relinquish more than $30 million of assets purchased with corruption proceeds,” according to a Justice Department news release.

“Through relentless embezzlement and extortion, Vice President Nguema Obiang shamelessly looted his government and shook down businesses in his country to support his lavish lifestyle, while many of his fellow citizens lived in extreme poverty,” said Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the department's Criminal Division.

Aside from the mansions and cars and yachts, Obiang also kept an expensive memorabilia collection, <a href="http://www.guineaecuatorialpress.com/noticia.php?id=4207">including</a> the jacket worn by Michael Jackson in the “Thriller” music video and one of the singer’s crystal-studded gloves. He was forced to sell them after the U.S. case.

Brown University

Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies

Kevin Sieff is an international investigative correspondent at The Washington Post focusing on the places where sports intersects with politics, crime and culture. He served previously as the paper's Mexico bureau chief, Africa bureau chief and Afghanistan bureau chief. 

Kevin Sieff

The Washington Post

War In Ukraine

Africa

Americas

Asia

Europe

Middle East

World

prism://prism.query/site-articles-only,/world/&limit=20

The Washington Post World section provides information and analysis of breaking world news stories. In addition to our world news and video, Post World News offers discussions and blogs on major international news and economic issues.