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| - France told the UN's top court on Tuesday it was justified in refusing diplomatic status to an upmarket Paris property as it was the subject of a criminal probe against Equatorial Guinea's vice president. The hearing at the International Court of Justice entered a second day in a case in which Malabo's lawyers are accusing Paris of breaching a fundamental treaty which safeguards diplomats from interference or harassment by a host country. French investigators in 2012 seized the six-storey mansion at 42 Avenue Foch as part of a long-running probe into Teodorin Obiang, accused by the French justice system of embezzlement and the misuse of tens of millions of public funds. Malabo's lawyers however insisted that the property in one of the French capital's most sought-after neighbourhoods was part of its diplomatic mission, while France say it is merely the lavish home of Obiang, the son of the central African nation's long-time leader. "No sending state in France has ever been in a similar situation to that of Equatorial Guinea with respect to 42 Avenue Foch," France's representative Francois Alabrune told the Hague-based court. "No sending state has requested diplomatic status for premises subject to criminal procedures," he said. Equatorial Guinea on Monday accused France of "attacking its dignity" and subjecting it to arbitrary and discriminatory treatment when it seized the property. But Alabrune hit back, saying "Equatorial Guinea's aim has been to demand diplomatic status for a privately occupied building occupied by the son of the head of state". This was "when the granting of this status could interfere with criminal proceedings under way in France against the self-same person," he said. The UN's highest court in June 2018 handed down a complicated legal ruling in which it partially threw out Malabo's case against Paris, triggered after a French court convicted Equatorial Guinea's vice president of embezzlement. In the long-running corruption case, a Paris court tried Obiang in absentia and handed him a three-year suspended sentence for corruption and money laundering in October 2017. He was found to have embezzled 150 million euros ($162 million) to fund his lavish lifestyle, and was also given a suspended fine of 30 million euros for money laundering and abuse. The sentence is currently under appeal in France. The ICJ -- set up after World War II to judge in disputes between countries -- took up the case to rule whether Obiang's Paris mansion was indeed a diplomatic mission. French authorities in 2012 seized the property on one of the French capital's poshest streets, along with a fleet of luxury cars including two Bugatti Veyrons -- one of the world's most expensive and fastest supercars -- and a Rolls Royce Phantom. Malabo contends the mansion, which also boasts a cinema, spa and gold-leafed taps, acted as its embassy in Paris, and as such was off-limits to French raids under the Vienna Convention. jhe/txw
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