Congo leader's son fails in bid against graft body

LONDON, Aug 15 (Reuters) A British court rejected a bid today by the son of Congolese President Denis Sassou-Nguesso to stop an anti-corruption watchdog publishing evidence suggesting he profited personally from state oil sales.

In June, London-based Global Witness published documents which it said showed Denis Christel Sassou-Nguesso had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on what appeared to be personal items paid for by companies with funds derived from oil sales.

Sassou-Nguesso, head of the Cotrade public agency which sells Congo Republic's oil, sought a London court injunction to force Global Witness to remove his company records and credit card statements from its Web site.

''It is an obvious possible inference that his expenditure has been financed by secret personal profits made out of dealings in oil sold by Cotrade,'' Judge Stanley Burnton said in a High Court ruling, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.

''Once there is good reason to doubt the propriety of the financial affairs of a public official, there is a public interest in those affairs being open to public scrutiny,'' he said.

Representatives of Sassou-Nguesso could not be contacted immediately.

''This is a triumph for human rights,'' said Mark Stephens of law firm Finers Stephens Innocent LLP, which represented Global Witness.

Congo Republic is no stranger to corruption allegations.

President Sassou-Nguesso is the subject of a police investigation launched in France in June into the origin of money used to buy property there.

He has dismissed the proceedings as ''gratuitous racism and provocation'' and said that ''all the world's leaders have chateaux and palaces in France, whether they are from the Gulf, from Europe or from Africa.'' REUTERS RSA BST2332