The French newspaper Le Parisien has reported that two sons of Yemen’s late President Ali Abdullah Saleh will stand trial in Paris, France, on charges related to money laundering of embezzled public funds and organized corruption.
According to the paper , two of his sons—including the eldest, Ahmed Saleh—will stand trial in Paris in September 2026 for “money laundering of embezzled public funds and organized corruption.”
They are suspected of having acquired luxury real estate in the capital using this embezzled money. Led by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), this case is a new manifestation of what is known as “ill-gotten gains.”
The defendants deny the charges, according to the paper.
Le Parisien explained that the investigation accused Ali Abdullah Saleh’s heirs of using embezzled public funds to purchase luxury properties in the French capital, Paris, in real estate transactions estimated at millions of euros.
The newspaper reported that the judicial investigation was launched in 2019, based on a request for judicial cooperation submitted by the Swiss authorities, and includes property purchases in upscale neighborhoods whose total value exceeded 16 million euros.
It added that French authorities had seized a number of these properties and recovered around 500,000 euros from bank accounts belonging to Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh, as part of measures to freeze suspicious funds.
The newspaper also noted that French investigators traced financial transfers amounting to approximately $30.6 million that passed through bank accounts funded from Yemen between 2009 and 2011.
Le Parisien clarified that the French prosecution’s charges rely on reports by the United Nations Panel of Experts on Yemen, which document extensive suspicions of money laundering and the inflation of illicit wealth.
The newspaper also pointed out that UN experts estimated Ali Abdullah Saleh’s wealth during his years in power to be between $32 and $60 billion, noting that Ahmed Saleh is at the center of a “family oligarchy,” while his brother Khaled is suspected of having masterminded money-laundering operations.
