A Paris court has authorised a Chinese investment firm to seize three Nigerian presidential aircraft in the execution of an international arbitral award granted in 2021, reports Nigeria's Premium Times.
Having published a translated version of the court document, the Premium Times reported that the enforcement judge at the Paris Judicial Court (Tribunal Judiciaire de Paris) authorised Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Ltd to seize the aircraft as security for its claim of EUR74,459,221 euros (USD81,724,193) related to an award granted to the Chinese firm by ad hoc arbitral tribunal in London on March 26, 2021.
The Paris court identified the aircraft belonging to the Federal Republic of Nigeria as:
- one Falcon 7X, 5N-FGU (msn 090) parked at Paris Le Bourget;
- one B737-700(BBJ), 5N-FGT (msn 34260) located at Basel/Mulhouse/Freiburg, CH, where it was ferried to in March to be sold;
- one ACJ330-200, 5N-FGA (msn 1053), recently bought from AMAC Corporate Jet (AMK, Zurich) and still stationed at Basel.
The court authorised the bailiffs "to go any place where the aircraft registered 5N-FGU, 5N-FGT and 5N-FGA are located and seize them" and made the order "enforceable against any third party holding the property subject to the seizure". Once the aircraft were seized, the bailiffs would appoint any third party of their choice as their guardians.
The case goes back to 2016 when Zhongshan acquired rights to develop land in Nigeria's Ogun Guangdong free trade zone but was expropriated without compensation following a dispute with the state government. The case went to international arbitration in 2018. In 2021, the London tribunal ruled in Zhongshan's favour, citing violations of investment treaty obligations and awarded USD55.6 million in compensation plus USD75,000 in moral damages, USD9.4 million in interest calculated from July 2016, GBP2.8 million pounds (USD3.6 million) in legal costs, and GBP354,655 (USD456,148) in other arbitration costs. The company had claimed USD1.07 billion.
Zhongshan has initiated legal proceedings in various jurisdictions to enforce the award, including the UK, US, Canada, Belgium, France, and the British Virgin Islands. In the latest update, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on August 9 affirmed the jurisdiction of the US District Court of Columbia over the case, which involved the enforcement of the arbitration award in favour of Zhongshan against Nigeria. The appellate court upheld that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) allows for jurisdiction in this case as the arbitration award was governed by the New York Convention, an international treaty on arbitration.
In June, the High Court of Justice of England and Wales made a final charging order over two Liverpool properties owned by the Nigerian government following interim orders by a lower court in June and August 2023. Nigeria had claimed that state immunity applied to the properties, but the High Court found they were leased to tenants unconnected with Nigeria and its UK Mission.
On March 21, the Superior Court of Quebec dismissed Nigeria's request to be excused for failing to respond in time to a summons issued in relation to a seizure before judgment of an aircraft in Quebec, which Zhongshan had secured on January 23, 2023. Nigeria's plea of state immunity was not accepted.
