Gabonese President Omar Bongo is seeking to overturn a French court order freezing nine of his bank accounts in the country, a source close to the case said Sunday.
The accounts were frozen in February after a French court ordered Bongo to return a sum paid to him by the son of a jailed Frenchman in exchange for his release, amounting with interest to 1.1 million euros (1.45 million dollars).
Bongo's lawyer filed a challenge with a Paris court, saying the president had already set aside the sum, and arguing that the freeze on his accounts, which hold a total of 4.39 million euros, is unnecessary, the source said.
The court is to examine Bongo's request on April 28, the source added.
Frenchman Rene Cardona was imprisoned in 1996 after a business dispute with Bongo, to whom he had sold a fishing and shipping firm. He was released after his son Thierry paid almost half a million euros into Bongo's personal account.
Last September a French court ruled the payment had been illegal and ordered Bongo to repay the entire sum plus interest and legal costs.
The Gabonese leader's lawyers had argued that the case was a private dispute, pointing out that a Libreville commercial court had sentenced the Frenchman to pay Bongo 900,000 euros in damages.
Africa's longest serving head of state, 73-year-old Bongo has ruled his oil-rich but socially impoverished former French colony since 1967 and has been a close associate of a string of French leaders.
In recent years his often murky economic ties with French figures have complicated his relations with Paris and have become the subject of a legal challenge by anti-corruption activists.
A French police investigation has reportedly established that Bongo and his family own at least 33 luxury properties in France, including a villa in Paris bought in 2007 for 18.8 million euros.
