The son of Africa's longest-serving president has been convicted for selling airplane

Ruslan Obiang Nsue, the son of Equatorial Guinea's President, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, has been convicted of illegally selling off a plane belonging to the national airline.

In a ruling delivered on Tuesday, August 26, 2025, the country's apex court ordered the convict to either compensate the state for the missing aircraft or serve a six-year jail term for the offense, Supreme Court press director Hilario Mitogo told reporters in a WhatsApp message.

According to Mitogo, the court ruled that Nsue could avoid jail if he paid around $255,000 to the airline, along with damages and a fine to the state.

However, the court acquitted him on separate charges bordering on embezzlement and abuse of office.

Nsue, a former director of the national carrier Ceiba Intercontinental, was convicted for selling the ATR 72-500 plane to a Spanish company without the approval of the company's board and pocketing the cash.

In 2023, Equatorial Guinea's Vice President, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, personally ordered the arrest of Nuse, his half-brother, expressing indignation over the unauthorised sale.

Both the vice president and the 50-year-old convict are sons of President Obiang, the world's longest-serving leader, who has been in power for 46 years after seizing power from his uncle in a 1979 military coup.

Nsue was initially placed under house arrest and then transferred to judicial custody on the order of his half-brother.

The convict has also served as Secretary of State for Sports and Youth in the oil-rich Central African state.

In a related but separate case, a French court handed down a suspended prison sentence and a $35 million fine to Obiang Mangue in July 2021, following his conviction for embezzling public funds.

The two sons of the President remain controversial figures in the Central African country, with speculation suggesting that the Vice President exerted his influence over his half-brother to better position himself to succeed their 83-year-old father as President.