On June 6, 2018, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued its judgment on France’s preliminary objections in the case of Immunities and Criminal Proceedings (Equatorial Guinea v. France), deciding that the case may move forward. According to the press release, the Court found that it has jurisdiction, on the basis of the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations concerning the Compulsory Settlement of Disputes, to rule on the part of Equatorial Guinea’s application concerning whether a luxury building in Paris owned by the son of Equatorial Guinea's president, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, is part of the state’s diplomatic mission. In 2010, a judicial investigation was opened in French courts concerning misappropriation of public funds, including questions of how Obiang acquired the luxury building at issue, which was confiscated in 2012 after a finding “that the building had been wholly or partly paid for out of the proceeds of the offences under investigation.” Obiang was made Second Vice-President of Equatorial Guinea in charge of Defence and State Security May 2012, and Equatorial Guinea has argued that the confiscation of this building in relation to the charges against Obiang was improper because he enjoyed diplomatic immunity and the residence was diplomatic property. The Court held that while they may make a determination on the building’s status, they lacked jurisdiction to decide on Equatorial Guinea's claim that Obiang has diplomatic immunity, which could have shielded him from French prosecution.