Africa Business

French-Israeli diamond magnate Beny Steinmetz will be back in court in Switzerland on Monday to appeal against a corruption sentence linked to mining rights in Guinea.

A Geneva court convicted the 66-year-old businessman in January 2021 of setting up a complex financial web to pay bribes to ensure his company could obtain permits in an area estimated to contain the world’s biggest untapped deposits of iron ore.

He was sentenced to five years in prison and also ordered to pay 50 million Swiss francs ($52 million) in compensation to the canton of Geneva.

Two of his alleged co-conspirators, who were slapped with shorter jail terms, are also appealing.

Steinmetz maintained his innocence throughout that trial and immediately appealed against the ruling, decrying it as a “big injustice”.

He has changed his legal and communications team for the appeal, and they are preparing to argue that the lower court had not fully heard his arguments and had misunderstood the situation.

“We expect that the tribunal recognises that Beny Steinmetz did not bribe anyone,” his new lawyer Daniel Kinzer told AFP in an email ahead of the appeals trial. 

“I am confident the appeals Court can be convinced,” he said, saying a deeper look at the case revealed “a totally different picture than the one painted by the first verdict.”

Far from being corrupt, Beny Steinmetz Group Resources (BSGR) had legitimately obtained the mining rights in question, and had striven in difficult and complex circumstances to set up an operation that would have benefited Guinea’s national interests, his team said.

– ‘Pact of corruption’ –

Swiss prosecutors painted a far different picture during the first trial, which was the culmination of a drawn-out international investigation that kicked off in Switzerland in 2013.

They accused Steinmetz and two partners of bribing a wife of the then Guinean president Lansana Conte and others in order to win mining rights in the southeastern Simandou region.

The prosecutors said Steinmetz obtained the rights shortly before Conte died in 2008 after about $10 million was paid in bribes over a number of years, some through Swiss bank accounts.

Conte’s military dictatorship ordered global mining giant Rio Tinto to relinquish two concessions to BSGR for around $170 million in 2008.

Just 18 months later, BSGR sold 51 percent of its stake in the concession to Brazilian mining giant Vale for $2.5 billion.

But in 2013, Guinea’s first democratically-elected president Alpha Conde launched a review of permits allotted under Conte and later stripped the VBG consortium formed by BSGR and Vale of its permit.

To secure the initial deal, prosecutors claimed Steinmetz and representatives in Guinea entered a “pact of corruption” with Conte and his fourth wife Mamadie Toure.

Toure, who has admitted to having received payments, has protected status in the United States as a state witness. 

She and a number of other key witnesses in the case failed to appear in the first trial, and it remained unclear if they would attend the appeal.

– ‘Totally false’ –

Steinmetz, who lived in Geneva during the years when the bribes were allegedly paid, continues to maintain that the bribery allegations are “totally false”, according to a document released by his team.

It insisted that Rio Tinto had lost the rights to half of its concessions in Simandou over its failure to develop them, in accordance with Guinean mining laws, and that BSGR later legitimately bid for and obtained exploration rights.

“The mining rights were withdrawn from a competitor because it was hoarding them and then awarded to BSGR on the basis of a solid and convincing business case with no need to bribe a public official,” Kinzer said.

Steinmetz, who was granted a legal free-passage guarantee in order to participate in the first trial, left Switzerland without serving his sentence.

He will be back in the Geneva court from Monday to argue his case after receiving another free-passage, with the appeal hearing due to last through September 7. The verdict will come at a later date.

Angolans started paying their final respect to former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos on Saturday as the veteran strongman’s historically dominant party emerged from its worst electoral result.

Dos Santos, who ruled Angola with an iron fist for 38 years, died on July 8 at a hospital in Spain after suffering a cardiac arrest. 

His tenure saw members of his family plunder the nation’s oil riches while most Angolans remained mired in poverty.

He will be buried at a state funeral on Sunday, on what would have been his 80th birthday.

The funeral is set to be attended by about a dozen foreign leaders, including the presidents of Portugal, Mozambique and South Africa.

A brown casket carrying dos Santos’s body and draped with the Angolan flag made the solemn trip through the streets to the city’s central Praca da Republica plaza. 

Most people went about their daily lives while some watched the cortege slowly drive past.

The coffin will lie in state in a tent for the public to pay their last respects. Hundreds of blue seats neatly laid out in the square for mourners were empty with a few MPLA supporters filing past the coffin to bid their final farewell.

– ‘President of peace’ –

“We are here to salute our president, the president of peace, the president of national reconciliation, the president who helped us through the war, and we live in peace thanks to him,” said Solange Quiniani, dressed in the colours of the ruling party.

Religious chants echoed through loudspeakers in the vast plaza, where there were black flags and posters paying homage to “Zedu” — dos Santos’s nickname. 

“Farewell beloved President!”, “Forever our commander”, “Zedu, man of the people”.    

A small group of women wept, chanting the name of the man whose tenure was marred by allegations of sweeping nepotism and plunder of the oil-rich state’s resources. 

A few family members and government officials accompanied the casket to the square, but none of his children were present.

Some of his children were at loggerheads with the government and his estranged wife over where and when he was to be buried.

But a Spanish court last week ruled that the body be repatriated to his wife in Angola. 

His eldest daughter Isabel dos Santos, who has faced a slew of investigations into her multinational business dealings, last week wrote on Instagram that she would not be able to see her father to his final resting place. 

The funeral comes as dos Santos’s MPLA party notched up its worst electoral performance in this week’s polls.

After 97 percent of the results were tallied, an initial count showed the MPLA had won 51.07 percent of the vote, against 44.05 percent of its main rival, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).

UNITA — which fought a bitter 27-year civil war against the MPLA government — has rejected the results and wants a review of the results led by an impartial international panel.

The election handed dos Santos’s successor President Joao Lourenco a second five-year term in office. 

MPLA’s support has been on a gradual decline in recent elections.

Born in the slums of Luanda, dos Santos was one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders.

Critics say he used his nation’s oil wealth to enrich his family and cronies but left most of his 33 million people among the poorest on the planet.

When he stepped down in 2017, dos Santos handed over to former defence minister Lourenco whom he had handpicked to succeed him. 

But Lourenco quickly turned on his erstwhile patron, unleashing an anti-corruption drive to recoup the billions he suspected had been embezzled under dos Santos.

Lourence is to lead the funeral on Sunday.

Rival armed groups exchanged gunfire in the Libyan capital Saturday, killing at least one person and raising fears of all-out conflict in a country embroiled in a grave political crisis.

The fighting follows months of rising tensions between two administrations vying for control of the North African country and its vast oil resources, the latest configuration in a complex and often violent power struggle since the 2011 overthrow of dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

Small arms fire and explosions rocked several districts of Tripoli overnight and into Saturday, when smoke could be seen rising from damaged buildings.

The two rival administrations exchanged blame as videos posted online showed burned-out cars and buildings ridden with bullet holes, as well as a mosque and a health clinic on fire.

The UN’s Libya mission called for “an immediate cessation of hostilities”, citing “ongoing armed clashes including indiscriminate medium and heavy shelling in civilian-populated neighbourhoods” that it said had damaged hospitals.

The US embassy in Libya said it was “very concerned” about the clashes.

Oussama Ali, a spokesman for Tripoli’s ambulance service, told Al-Ahrar television that an unknown number of civilians had been wounded but that his service was “having difficulties moving around”.

Local media reported fatalities but no official toll has been released.

News agency Lana said actor Mustafa Baraka had been killed in one of the neighbourhoods hit by fighting, sparking anger and mourning on social media.

The Government of National Unity (GNU) of Abdulhamid Dbeibah said fighting had broken out after negotiations to avoid bloodshed in the western city collapsed.

Dbeibah’s government, installed as part of a United Nations-led peace process following a previous round of violence, is challenged by a rival government led by former interior minister Fathi Bashagha.

– Exchanging blame –

Bashagha, who is backed by Libya’s parliament and eastern-based military strongman Khalifa Haftar, says the GNU’s mandate has expired.

But he has so far been unable to take office in Tripoli, as Dbeibah has insisted on only handing power to an elected government.

Dbeibah’s government accused Bashagha of “carrying out his threats” to take control of Tripoli.

Dbeibah’s GNU said negotiations had been underway to “hold elections at the end of the year to resolve the political crisis”, but that Bashagha had “walked out at the last moment”.

Emadeddin Badi, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said the statement would “ring hollow”.

“It will be lost on no one that the GNU is more concerned with entrenching itself in Tripoli than with protecting any Tripolitan constituency,” he tweeted.

“The same is valid for the parallel government and its allies.”

Bashagha was appointed in February by the parliament, which was elected in 2014 and is based in the eastern city of Tobruk, but he has been unable to impose his authority in Tripoli.

Initially ruling out the use of violence, the former minister has since hinted that he could resort to force.

Last week, he called on “Libyan men of honour” to drop their support for Dbeibah’s “obsolete and illegitimate” administration.

Last month, clashes between rival groups in Tripoli left 16 people dead, including a child.

It was the deadliest violence to hit the Libyan capital since Haftar’s ill-fated attempt to seize it by force in 2019 and 2020.

Tunisia said Saturday it would recall its ambassador from Morocco for consultations, a day after the kingdom did the same in response to Tunisia’s president hosting the Polisario movement’s head.

The Polisario wants an independent state in the Western Sahara, a vast stretch of mineral-rich desert which Morocco sees as a sovereign part of its own territory.

Tunisian President Kais Saied had on Friday hosted Polisario chief Brahim Ghali who arrived to attend the Japanese-African investment conference TICAD.

In response to what it called a “hostile” and “unnecessarily provocative” act, Morocco immediately withdrew its Tunis ambassador for consultations and cancelled its own participation in the high-profile conference.

On Saturday the Tunisian Foreign Ministry voiced its “surprise” at Morocco’s reaction.

“Tunisia has maintained its total neutrality on the Western Sahara issue in line with international law,” it said in a statement.

“This position will not change until the concerned parties find a peaceful solution acceptable to all.”

Saied spent much of Friday welcoming African leaders arriving for the TICAD conference, including Ghali who is also president of the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).

Morocco accused Tunisia of “unilaterally” inviting the Polisario chief “against the advice of Japan and in violation of the process of preparation and established rules”. 

But Tunisia said Saturday the African Union had issued a direct invitation to the SADR, a member state, to join the conference, noting that it had attended previous such gatherings — alongside Morocco.

The move came as French President Emmanuel Macron visited Morocco’s arch-rival and Polisario backer Algeria for a three-day visit aimed at healing ties with the former French colony.

It is not the first time that Ghali’s travels have sparked Moroccan anger.

In April 2021, he headed to Spain to be treated for Covid-19, sparking a year-long diplomatic row between Spain and the North African kingdom.

That only ended after Madrid dropped its decades-long stance of neutrality over the Western Sahara — a former Spanish colony — and backed a Moroccan plan for limited self-rule there.

The Polisario had waged an armed struggle before agreeing to a ceasefire in 1991 on the promise of a UN-supervised referendum on self-determination, which has never happened.

The current chair of the African Union, Macky Sall, said he “regretted the absence of Morocco” in a speech to TICAD delegates on Saturday.

“We hope that this problem will find a solution for the smooth running of our partnership” between Africa and Japan, he said.

James Anderson made the breakthrough as England pressed for a series-levelling win over South Africa in the second Test at Old Trafford on Saturday.

The Proteas were 88-3 in their second innings at lunch on the third day, still 176 runs adrift of England’s first innings 415-9 declared — a total built on Ben Foakes’s 113 not out and Ben Stokes’s 103, his first hundred since being appointed England captain.

Anderson, starring yet again from the end named after him on his Lancashire home ground, had interval figures of 1-15 in seven overs, with fellow pacemen Stuart Broad (1-16 in six) and the recalled Ollie Robinson (1-26 in 10) in the wickets as well.

Keegan Petersen was 20 not out and Rassie van der Dussen 14 not out

South Africa resumed on 23-0, facing a huge task to preserve a 1-0 lead in this three-match series after an innings and 12-run rout of England in the first Test at Lord’s.

But nine overs into Saturday’s play both their openers had been dismissed.

South Africa captain Dean Elgar fell without addition to his overnight 11 when he was clean bowled by a full-length delivery from 40-year-old England great Anderson that held its line and kept a touch low before sending the left-handed opener’s off-stump cartwheeling.

South Africa’s 33-1 soon became 39-2 when Elgar’s fellow left-handed opener Sarel Erwee, who had taken his 12 not out at Friday’s close to 25, played a curious shot that was neither a leave nor defensive stroke to edge a full-length Robinson delivery from around the wicket to wicketkeeper Foakes.

South Africa were almost 44-3 when Broad bowled the struggling Aiden Markram for a duck with a superb delivery that angled in, beat the outside edge and disturbed the off bail only to be denied the wicket by a marginal, but correct, no-ball ruling by third umpire Nitin Menon.  

But it made little difference, with Broad dismissing Markram for six when the top-order batsman, who has now gone 15 innings without a Test fifty, edged a drive to Zak Crawley at second slip.

Tunisia said Saturday it would recall its ambassador from Morocco for consultations, a day after the kingdom did the same in response to Tunisia’s president hosting the Polisario movement’s head.

The Polisario wants an independent state in the Western Sahara, a vast stretch of mineral-rich desert which Morocco sees as a sovereign part of its own territory.

Tunisian President Kais Saied had on Friday hosted Polisario chief Brahim Ghali who arrived to attend the Japanese-African investment conference TICAD.

In response to what it called a “hostile” and “unnecessarily provocative” act, Morocco immediately withdrew its Tunis ambassador for consultations and cancelled its own participation in the high-profile conference.

On Saturday the Tunisian Foreign Ministry voiced its “surprise” at Morocco’s reaction.

“Tunisia has maintained its total neutrality on the Western Sahara issue in line with international law,” it said in a statement.

“This position will not change until the concerned parties find a peaceful solution acceptable to all.”

Saied spent much of Friday welcoming African leaders arriving for the TICAD conference, including Ghali who is also president of the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).

Morocco accused Tunisia of “unilaterally” inviting the Polisario chief “against the advice of Japan and in violation of the process of preparation and established rules”. 

But Tunisia said Saturday the African Union had issued a direct invitation to the SADR, a member state, to join the conference, noting that it had attended previous such gatherings — alongside Morocco.

The move came as French President Emmanuel Macron visited Morocco’s arch-rival and Polisario backer Algeria for a three-day visit aimed at healing ties with the former French colony.

It is not the first time that Ghali’s travels have sparked Moroccan anger.

In April 2021, he headed to Spain to be treated for Covid-19, sparking a year-long diplomatic row between Spain and the North African kingdom.

That only ended after Madrid dropped its decades-long stance of neutrality over the Western Sahara — a former Spanish colony — and backed a Moroccan plan for limited self-rule there.

The Polisario had waged an armed struggle before agreeing to a ceasefire in 1991 on the promise of a UN-supervised referendum on self-determination, which has never happened.

The African Union’s acting chairman Macky Sall, in a speech to TICAD delegates on Saturday, said he “regretted the absence of Morocco”.

“We hope that this problem will find a solution for the smooth running of our partnership” between Africa and Japan, he said.

Rival Libyan groups exchanged gunfire in the Libyan capital Saturday, wounding civilians and raising fears of all-out conflict in a country facing a grave political crisis.

With combat continuing, “we are having difficulties moving around”, Oussama Ali, spokesman for the Tripoli ambulance service, said on Libya’s Al-Ahrar television.

He said there were “injured among civilians”, but did not give a number.

Local media reported fatalities but no official toll had been released.

Numerous images on social media purported to show cars burnt-out in the fighting and bullet-riddled buildings.

The fighting broke out in various districts of Tripoli between groups armed with both heavy and light weapons, as two rival governments yet again vie for power in the oil-rich but impoverished North African country.

Gunshots and explosions rang through the darkened streets of Tripoli throughout Friday night, an AFP correspondent said.

The crisis pits groups that back the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU), led by Abdulhamid Dbeibah, against supporters of a rival government led by former interior minister Fathi Bashagha.

According to local media, two influential armed groups faced off against one another in Tripoli, where divisions have deepened among militias on opposing sides of the political divide.

Bashagha was appointed in February by a parliament elected in 2014 and based in the eastern city of Tobruk, but has since been unable to impose his authority in Tripoli.

Initially ruling out the use of force, the former minister has since hinted that he could resort to armed force.

Last week, he called on “Libyan men of honour” to drop their support for Dbeibah’s “obsolete and illegitimate” administration.

Bashagha is supported by eastern-based military strongman Khalifa Haftar, who launched an unsuccessful offensive on the capital between 2019 and 2020.

Dbeibah — appointed last year as part of a United Nations-backed peace process to end more than a decade of violence in the country — has refused to hand over power before elections.

The UN on Tuesday voiced “deep concern” over growing tensions between the rival Libyan forces, calling for “immediate” moves to calm the situation.

Last month, the most deadly clashes between rival groups in Tripoli since 2020 left 16 people dead, including a child.

Tunisia and Japan launched a pan-African investment conference on Saturday, seeking to counter the influence of rival China whose economic imprint on the continent has steadily grown.

The conference takes place amid a “complex” international environment caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine, the Japanese foreign ministry has said.

Some 30 heads of state and government are attending the event in the capital Tunis, at a time when the import-dependent North African nation is grappling with a deepening economic malaise.

In his opening speech, Tunisian President Kais Saied urged delegates to “search together for ways for African peoples to achieve the hopes and dreams of the first generation after independence”.

He praised Japan’s success in “achieving development at the same time as preserve its culture and social traditions”.

“The world cannot continue as it was. With all its wealth and assets, Africa cannot watch its people live through poverty,” he said.

The eighth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD8) also comes as Beijing cements its influence on the continent with its “Belt and Road” infrastructure initiative.

It is the first TICAD — held every three years either in Japan or an African country — since the pandemic began.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will be attending remotely after testing positive for Covid-19.

The Japanese delegation is being led by Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, with about 5,000 participants set to attend.

Morocco withdrew from the event and recalled its ambassador from Tunisia for consultations, after Saied hosted the head of Western Sahara’s Polisario independence movement.

The conference will focus on three pillars: economy, society, and peace and stability.

A slick promotional video said the conference aims to promote “African development led by African people”.

But no journalists from African news outlets had been given access to delegates ahead of the event, except Tunisian state media, alongside Japanese journalists.

Japanese economic paper Nikkei reported that aid to Africa could increase by 40 percent over the next three years, in response to other powers that have boosted their presence on the continent.

– Beware of ‘excessive’ debt –

At the last TICAD in 2019, former premier Shinzo Abe — who was assassinated at a campaign event last month — warned investors in Africa they must beware of burdening countries with “excessive” debt, an apparent swipe at China.

Tunisian authorities hope their struggling economy will benefit from hosting the conference by attracting Japanese investment, particularly in the health, automotive and renewable energy sectors.

The conference has sparked anger among Tunisians as major road closures threatened traffic disruptions in the capital.

Authorities also drew widespread mockery after detaining Japanese satellite engineers — TICAD delegates — at Tunis airport for hours because they were in possession of a model satellite that they intend to use to showcase technology.

Authorities have spruced up parts of the city likely to be seen by delegates and dug in roadside plants, but these efforts have also drawn the ire of social media users.

“I feel deeply insulted by the clean-up of Tunis for the TICAD,” one Tunisian wrote on Twitter, arguing that “those we pay to make our lives easier” should instead focus on making the capital livable for citizens all year round.

Rival Libyan groups exchanged gunfire in the Libyan capital overnight Friday-Saturday, an AFP correspondent said, raising fears of all-out conflict in a country facing a grave political crisis.

The fighting broke out in various districts of Tripoli between groups armed with both heavy and light weapons, as two rival governments yet again vie for power in the oil-rich but impoverished North African country.

Gunshots and explosions rang through the darkened streets of Tripoli, the AFP correspondent said, adding that there were no immediate reports of casualties.

The crisis pits groups that back the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU), led by Abdulhamid Dbeibah, against supporters of a rival government led by former interior minister Fathi Bashagha.

According to local media, two influential armed groups faced off against one another in Tripoli, where divisions have deepened among militias on opposing sides of the political divide.

Bashagha was appointed in February by a parliament elected in 2014 and based in the eastern city of Tobruk, but has since been unable to impose his authority in Tripoli.

Initially ruling out the use of force, the former minister has more recently hinted that he could resort to armed conflict.

Last week, he called on “Libyan men of honour” to drop their support for Dbeibah’s “obsolete and illegitimate” administration.

Bashagha is supported by eastern-based military strongman Khalifa Haftar, who launched an unsuccessful offensive on the capital between 2019 and 2020.

Dbeibah — appointed last year as part of a United Nations-backed peace process to end more than a decade of violence in the country — has refused to hand over power before elections.

The UN on Tuesday voiced “deep concern” over growing tensions between the rival Libyan forces, calling for “immediate” moves to calm the situation.

Last month, the most deadly clashes between rival groups in Tripoli since 2020 left 16 people dead, including a child.

Japan opens an African investment conference in Tunisia on Saturday, seeking to counter the influence of rival China which has steadily grown its economic imprint on the continent.

The conference takes place amid a “complex” international environment caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine, the Japanese foreign ministry has noted.

Some 30 heads of state and government are expected to attend the event in the capital Tunis, at a time when the import-dependent North African nation is grappling with a deepening economic malaise.

The eighth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD8) also comes as Beijing cements its influence on the continent with its “Belt and Road” infrastructure initiative.

It is the first TICAD — held every three years either in Japan or an African country — since the pandemic began.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will be attending remotely after testing positive for Covid-19.

The Japanese delegation will be led by Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, with about 5,000 participants set to attend.

But the opening risks being overshadowed by Morocco withdrawing from the event and recalling its ambassador from Tunisia for consultations, after Tunisia’s President Kais Saied hosted the head of Western Sahara’s Polisario independence movement.

Since 1993, TICAD conferences backed by the United Nations and other international agencies have generated 26 development projects in 20 African countries.

Most are funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The conference will focus on three pillars: economy; society; and peace and stability.

A slick promotional video said the conference aims to promote “African development led by African people”.

But no journalists from African news outlets have been given access to delegates ahead of the event, except Tunisian state media, alongside Japanese journalists.

Japanese economic paper Nikkei reported that aid to Africa could increase by 40 percent over the next three years, in response to other powers that have boosted their presence on the continent.

At the last TICAD in 2019, former premier Shinzo Abe — who was assassinated at a campaign event last month — warned investors in Africa that they must beware of burdening countries with “excessive” debt, an apparent swipe at China.

Tunisian authorities hope their struggling economy will benefit from hosting the conference by attracting Japanese investment, particularly in the health, automotive and renewable energy sectors.

The conference has sparked anger among Tunisians as major road closures threatened traffic disruptions in the capital.

Authorities also drew widespread mockery after detaining Japanese satellite engineers — TICAD delegates — at Tunis airport for hours because they were in possession of a model satellite that they intend to use to showcase technology.

Authorities have spruced up parts of the city likely to be seen by delegates and dug in roadside plants, but these efforts have also drawn the ire of social media users.

“I feel deeply insulted by the clean-up of Tunis for the TICAD,” one Tunisian wrote on Twitter, arguing that “those we pay to make our lives easier” should instead focus on making the capital livable for citizens all year round.