Two sons of former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh face trial in September 2026 in Paris for allegedly buying luxury property in the French capital with money plundered from the Yemeni state.
Ahmed Ali Saleh, the 53-year old eldest son of the ex-president assassinated in 2017, is described by the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) as “the heart of this oligarchy operating as a financial business,” French prosecutors confirmed to The National.
With his brother Khaled, 38, Ahmed Ali Saleh is accused by the PNF of “money laundering of embezzled public funds and organised corruption.” The two men deny the charges.
The charges related to more than $30 million of money transfers between 2009 and 2011 that moved through their bank accounts in Paris.
The allegations highlight corruption in one of the poorest countries in the world under the 1990-2012 presidential mandate of Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was toppled after the Arab uprisings.
Yemen has for more than a decade been mired in a civil war where the Iran-backed Houthi movement took over the capital, Sanaa. The fighting has hardened sectarian divisions and hardship has increased as foreign aid efforts struggle to meet the population's basic needs.
While he was in power, Ali Abdullah Saleh is believed to have amassed a fortune estimated between $32 billion and $60 billion with a system of bribes on gas, oil and arms deals. He allegedly also siphoned public money, according to figures collected by a UN group of experts on Yemen.
After he stepped down, Ali Abdullah Saleh then allied himself with the Houthi militias he had once fought in the north of the country. But they killed him three years when Sanaa was overrun in 2014.
Luxury real estate
At the heart of the forthcoming proceedings are funds that were allegedly used to buy three properties near the Arc de Triomphe, one of the most upmarket neighbourhoods in Paris, for €16 million.
This includes a building on Rue Galilee, bought for €7 million in 2005; a flat on Rue de Tilsitt bought for €6.5 million in 2010; and a €2.5 million investment in the acquisition of two mansions on Avenue d'Iena.
The French investigation into the alleged ill-acquired wealth of his family members was launched in 2019 following a request for judicial co-operation from Switzerland.
Ahmed Ali Saleh was a brigadier general during his father's presidential rule and led the Republican Guard. He has been under US and UN sanctions since 2015 for supporting the Houthi movement that has been fighting against the UN-recognised government.
Lack of evidence
In a written response to the PNF, Khaled Saleh has rejected the conclusions of UN experts regarding the origin of the family fortune. He argued that the funds that passed through French banks came from gifts from foreign heads of state but the evidence was destroyed in the war, Le Parisien reported.
Lawyers Clara Gerard-Rodriguez and Pierre-Olivier Sur said that their clients had done nothing illegal and argued that there lacked evidence to prove that the real estate purchases were linked to corruption.
“Simply saying that regime was corrupt in no way proves that it was money from corruption that enabled his sons to purchase property in France,” Ms Gerard-Rodriguez said.
Two other defendants are to be sent to trial, according to Le Parisien: a Yemeni businessman close to the family suspected of having participated in the management of their assets, and the manager of the asset management company he created.
