Commisimpex Affair: As they battle it out in French courts, Hojeij and Sassou hold secret talks in Beirut

摘要

It began as an old-fashioned negotiation: no secure Telgram communications, no conference calls. As soon as Beirut airport reopened on 1 July, emissaries took private jets from Brazzaville to Lebanon. Their mission: to strike a compromise with the Lebanese entrepreneur Mohsen Hojeij, the head of Commisimpex, whose early-1990s €100m dues from Congo have, after years of accumulating interest, ballooned into a debt of an eye-watering $1.2bn. The talks are being held in the utmost discretion - they take place as Hojeij's lawyers step up their seizures of Congo's assets in France and as Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso loudly insists to all and sundry that he will never negotiate with Lebanese businessman.