MOSCOW - April 4, RAPSI. The Moscow City Court has ordered the Spanish El Mundo newspaper to refute its allegations that Russian businessmen laundered money for Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.

The Moscow Lyublinsky District Court held for Vladimir and Yulia Kokorev in their defamation lawsuit against Infox Media, which republished the information disseminated by El Mundo in 2009.

The court has established that in late September 2009 El Mundo published a false report alleging that the Spanish Corruption Department suspected the Kokorevs of laundering 26.484 million euro that belonged to the president of Equatorial Guinea.

According to El Mundo, investigators found that property purchased by Nguema's relatives in Spain, including apartments, houses, garages and
mansions, was paid for from an account in the Santander bank's Madrid office. The money was allegedly transmitted from the US-based Riggs Bank.

The court has also ascertained that neither the US, nor the Spanish authorities have any claims against the Equatorial Guinea government or Kokorev's company, which withdrew funds from its bank account to pay for repairing and maintaining its ships contracted by Equatorial Guinea.

Infox Media was also ordered to publish a refutation.