MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Equatorial Guinea will shut down embassy in London to protest corruption charges

Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, 53, is also the vice-president of Equatorial Guinea and is responsible for the country's defense and security.

The former Spanish colony of Equatorial Guinea announced on Monday it was shutting down its embassy in London following on sanctions imposed by the UK on the son of the president alleging corruption. Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, 53, is also the vice-president of Equatorial Guinea and is responsible for the country's defense and security.

His father, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, 79, is the longest sitting president in the world and the dynasty stands accused of a litany of rights abuses, and overseas not only in the UK but also in France.

The British government alleges the younger Obiang misappropriated more than €425 million, which he spent on mansions, private jets and a €233,000 glove covered in crystals that pop music icon Michael Jackson wore during his 1987-89 “Bad” tour.

Obiang's assets were frozen and he is barred from entering the UK.

“Equatorial Guinea will not accept interference in the internal affairs of the country, which violates the principle of international law,” the country's foreign minister, Simeon Oyono Esono, said on state broadcaster TVGE.

However he did not say when the embassy would close or whether there was a timetable yet for its closure.

President Obiang seized power through a bloody coup against his uncle Francisco Macias Nguema in 1979, just 11 years after the country's independence from Spain.

Obiang Jr is also in trouble in France, with a suspended three-year sentence, a € 30 million fine and the confiscation of his assets in Paris. These include a fleet of luxury cars and a mansion valued at more than €107 million on the posh Avenue Foch in Paris which were all seized during a French probe into his “ill-gotten gains.”