The Hague: Equatorial Guinea has asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to act quickly to protect its claim to a building at 42 avenue Foch in Paris in a legal dispute with France.
In a case known as ‘Request relating to the Return of Property Confiscated in Criminal Proceedings (Equatorial Guinea versus France)’, Equatorial Guinea. The request, filed on July 3, 2025, under Article 41 of the ICJ Statute and Article 73 of the Rules of Court, says France’s recent actions could block Equatorial Guinea’s right to get the building back under the United Nations Convention against Corruption, signed on October 31, 2003. The country wants the court to stop France from selling the building before the full case is settled.
The case started on September 29, 2022, when Equatorial Guinea took France to the ICJ, using Article 66 of the convention, which lets the court handle disputes about the convention’s rules if talks and arbitration fail. Equatorial Guinea sent its main arguments on July 17, 2023, and France responded on February 19, 2024, with more documents due by July 28, 2025, and May 28, 2026. The current request comes because Equatorial Guinea says France’s actions could make it impossible to return the building. On May 27, 2025, France’s Agency for the Management and Recovery of Seized and Confiscated Assets (AGRASC), which works under the Ministries of Justice and Public Accounts, asked a Paris court to appoint someone to enter the building. The court agreed on June 3, 2025, with an order.
On June 18, 2025, at about 8:30 AM, a French judicial police commissioner, police officers, AGRASC staff, private security workers, locksmiths, and police dogs entered the building without telling its occupants beforehand. They changed the locks on the main and back doors of the first, second, and third floors used by Equatorial Guinea and took the new keys. They also broke the building’s security cameras and the gate-opening system, stopping vehicles from entering. That day, Equatorial Guinea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation, and Diaspora sent a note verbale (No. 4961/025) to France’s Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, protesting the entry. France replied on June 19, 2025, with a note verbale (NV2025-0247803), saying it wasn’t told about AGRASC’s plans and wanted to fix the issue legally, but it gave no clear solutions.
On June 24, 2025, Equatorial Guinea wrote to the ICJ, explaining the June 18 events and asking France to promise by June 27, 2025, that it wouldn’t sell the building or make the dispute worse. France has not given any promise to avoid selling the building before the ICJ decides the case. Equatorial Guinea says this silence and France’s actions show a sale could happen any time, ruining its chance to get the building back under the convention’s rules.
Equatorial Guinea asks the ICJ to order France to take all necessary measures to ensure the building is not offered for sale, to guarantee Equatorial Guinea immediate, full, and unhindered access to the entire building, and to refrain from any action that might aggravate or extend the dispute or make its resolution more difficult. The request says a sale would block Equatorial Guinea’s right to have the building returned under Article 57 of the convention and break rules about treating countries equally and not meddling in their affairs, as stated in Article 4, paragraph 1. It also points to France’s “Programme 370,” started under a law from August 4, 2021, which uses money from selling seized property for development projects in the property’s home country, making it harder to give the building back.
The ICJ can step in because both Equatorial Guinea, which joined the convention on May 30, 2018, and France, which joined on July 11, 2005, agreed to its rules without exceptions. Equatorial Guinea says it tried to settle the issue by talking to France and suggested arbitration on January 6, 2022, but France didn’t agree, allowing the case to go to the ICJ. The request says the court has the power to act, Equatorial Guinea’s claim to the building is reasonable, and there’s an urgent risk of permanent harm if France sells it, based on past ICJ cases like South Africa v. Israel on January 26, 2024, and Ukraine v. Russia on March 16, 2022. Under Article 74 of the Rules of Court, the request asks to be handled first, and Equatorial Guinea can ask for more help later if needed.
Equatorial Guinea highlights a December 2021 statement by the French President, noted in a January 6, 2022, note verbale, saying France wouldn’t return the assets, and the June 18, 2025, entry as signs that a sale could happen soon. It says these steps could hurt the court case and go against the convention’s goal of countries working together to fight corruption. The ICJ will now decide whether to grant Equatorial Guinea’s requests to keep the building safe while the case moves forward, looking at how France’s actions match international rules.
– global bihari bureau
