In the judgment given on February 3, the French Court of Cassation confirms the inviolability of thirteen bank accounts of the Congo embassy in France which were seized in 2016 by the company Commisimpex. by Moshen Hojeij in the context of the Lebanese businessman’s heavy litigation with the Republic of Congo. In execution of two final arbitration awards dated December 3, 2000 and January 21, 2013, this unpaid construction company for several projects carried out in the 1990s in Brazzaville is claiming a record debt of more than $ 1.2 billion.
While his lawyers are firing on all cylinders to seize the assets of the Congo in repayment of this record debt, the Court of Cassation recalls in its judgment that the accounts linked to the operation of a chancellery were covered by diplomatic immunity a fortiori if the target State had not waived its immunity in an “express and special” manner. By this decision, the high court follows customary international law which grants diplomatic missions of foreign states immunity from execution. It also complies with the Sapin 2 law. Passed at the end of 2016, this law responsible for protecting the property of foreign States on French soil makes the seizure of diplomatic property subject to the renunciation by the State in question of its immunity from execution on condition that he manifests it in an “express and special” manner, which Brazzaville did not do in this case.
The lawyers for Commisimpex maintained that this clause could not be invoked in the case of bank accounts, the Sapin 2 law having entered into force after the seizure. The Court of Cassation confirms the non-application of this law in this case. It nevertheless recalls that its case law prior to this law (appeal of September 28, 2011 and March 28, 2013) indeed subordinates the validity of the waiver to an immunity from execution on diplomatic property to the dual condition that it is express and special. . While it had appealed to cassation following a judgment of the Court of Appeal of Paris ordering a release of the accounts of the embassy, Commisimpex was ordered to pay the costs. This question of law should again arise in the case of President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s Falcon 7X seized in Bordeaux at the beginning of 2020.
