The investigation opened in the National Court for the kidnapping and torture of three senior officials of the Teodoro Obiang regime —including one of his sons— shows that the harassment of opponents of the Equatorial Guinean dictatorship goes beyond the borders of the Central African country and reaches the heart of Europe. Reports from the General Police Information Station provided to the case prove the existence of a “systematic persecution of political opponents abroad” by the Obiang regime, which has been running the country with an iron fist for 43 years.
Teodorín Obiang accuses Spain of “interference” for investigating the alleged kidnapping of opponents
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This summary, to which elDiario.es has had access, has surfaced an alleged plot of “international kidnappings of Equatoguinean opponents”, who in several cases have the nationality of a European country or have international protection. Police reports describe a modus operandi similar that consists of the use of a “prior deception” so that the opponent who is in a safe country travels to a country under the influence of the Equatoguinean regime. “Usually neighboring countries or African countries,” states a report dated December 1, 2022.
In these countries, opponents are detained, either by mercenaries or by local authorities in exchange for financial compensation. Later they are handed over to the Equatorial Guinean authorities and the forced displacement to Equatorial Guinea is usually done in one of the presidential planes. There they are interned in prisons that have been denounced by NGOs for the inhumane conditions in which the prisoners are found and for the systematic practice of torture. And, on many occasions, subjected to political trials without legal grounds or guarantees.
The case opened in the Central Court of Instruction number 5 of the National Court, revealed by The country, is directed against President Obiang’s security circle: Carmelo Ovono Obiang, one of his sons and Secretary of State for Foreign Security; Nicolás Obama Nchama, Minister of State and head of internal security; and Isaac Ngema Endo, General Director of Presidential Security.
The three are allegedly implicated in the kidnapping and torture inflicted on four prominent opponents of Equatorial Guinean origin residing in Spain who belong to the Movement for the Liberation of Equatorial Guinea Third Republic. They are Martín Obiang Ondo Mbasogo, Bienvenido Ndong Ondo, Feliciano Efa Mangue and Julio Obama Mefuman. The last two have Spanish nationality. The Police consider that this “organized and structured plan to persecute opponents” has the president, Teodoro Obiang, and his son and vice-president, Teodoro Nguema Obiang, popularly known as Teodorín, as the “ultimate and main” culprits, although they cannot be convicted. for the crimes investigated because they have diplomatic protection.
Two of the three investigated have roots in Spain. Obiang’s son, alias didi, resides sporadically in Marbella and owns a home and two garages in Barcelona, according to police reports provided to the case. In addition, he is the sole partner and owner of 100% of the company Derek Edita y Hermanos SL, which also has several properties in Spain. He is married to a Spanish woman who lives in the aforementioned residence in Marbella. Nicholas Obama, aka Nico, has a property in his name in Villalbilla. (Madrid). And Isaac Nguema, Daddyhas visited Spain repeatedly in recent years, where his children have lived.
Police reports place the three on the presidential plane in which the opponents were transferred to Malabo (Equatorial Guinea) from South Sudan. The four opponents had traveled from Madrid to South Sudan in November 2019 to meet with alleged African political leaders with the aim of winning support for their cause. But there they were captured and transferred in a private jet to the capital of Equatorial Guinea. The victims claim that during the journey they were handcuffed and handcuffed and a sack was placed over their heads and a cloth over their mouths. They were also given an injection with an unknown substance. After landing they were transferred to the Oveng-Azem prison, located in the east of the country.
The Police affirm that the hostages were subjected to “torture sessions” since their arrival at that prison and “repeatedly, at least during the first weeks of internment.” To do this, it is based on “messages, audios and videos, recorded and written by the victims and sent to people they trust in Spain” through one of the protected witnesses, a prison officer who was also a “direct witness” of at least three of those sessions. This witness recognized in photographs Obiang’s son and Isaac Ngema Endo as the instigators of these tortures “vising and giving orders to the other” torturers. The contribution of information from two other protected witnesses residing in Spain has also been “fundamental”, according to the Police.
In addition to the “inhumane living conditions and constant psychological abuse,” the agents describe “long torture sessions” including electric shocks or the so-called crocodile technique, which consists of hanging the victim upside down by his hands and feet. for long periods causing blood to press against the front of the body and eventually burst blood vessels. They also made them undress and poured very hot water over them. “The veins in my arms and legs burst because the pressure was excessive. Blood was shooting everywhere. Thus during four long sessions”, describes one of the victims in an audio sent to one of the protected witnesses and contributed to the case.
All of this, with the aim of “obtaining information” on the activity of opponents of the Equatorial Guinea regime and “breaking their will” so that they agreed to sign blank documents and self-incriminating statements ahead of the trial, which was held on 30 March 2020. During that hearing, broadcast on public television, the victims ratified these statements of self-incrimination and showed repentance, while requesting clemency from the president of the country.
They were sentenced to between 70 and 90 years in prison for organizing an alleged frustrated coup in December 2017 that would have been aimed at killing Obiang. The Spanish Police, however, affirm that the activity of this group of opponents “does not suppose, under any circumstances, a threat to the security and public order of Spain or of third countries.” the NGO Human Rights Watch denounced the “violations of the guarantees of due process”, which included obtaining confessions through torture and the formation of a court that was neither independent nor impartial.
Since then, they have been serving their sentences in absolutely subhuman conditions. Except on “rare occasions” they spend 24 hours a day in tiny individual underground cells, with a lack of air, no natural light and in which there is barely a cement bed and a small mattress. Nor can they receive visits from relatives or lawyers. In fact, the agents also report the “flagrant violation of consular rights” suffered by the two hostages who have Spanish nationality. Spanish diplomacy had to make “innumerable efforts” to officially confirm the mere fact of his arrest. And in all this time, they have only been able to be visited once by members of the Spanish Embassy in Equatorial Guinea.
“Connection” with other kidnappings
The Spanish Police consider that this case “has some clear elements in common with the rest of the kidnappings carried out in recent years from different African countries to national citizens or residents of Europe.” The legal sources consulted by elDiario.es affirm that the agents have set up a “focal point” at Europol to channel information on this and other cases and “demonstrate the direct connection and systematicity” between them.
The agents have contacted other victims and have also analyzed dozens of complaints filed in Spain for similar events starting in 2018. However, they affirm that this does not mean that the investigation has to be extended to these cases, since they were not the object of their investigation. time of the opening of criminal proceedings, most likely because in most cases the Spanish courts had no jurisdiction in this regard.
Within the framework of this international police collaboration, agents from the General Information Commissioner are investigating, together with their Italian counterparts, the kidnapping in Togo of Francisco Micha, a 68-year-old Equatorial Guinean who had lived in Spain since the late 1990s, and his friend Fulgencio Obiang Esono , engineer of Italian nationality and Equatoguinean origin. Both are interned in a prison in the Central African country. His case has also been documented by International Amnesty. The Police also echoes the kidnapping in Nigeria of another political refugee residing in Belgium, Cipriano Nguema Mba, with a modus operandi similar to the one investigated in the National Court.
The summary of the special court has its origin in several reports of disappearance presented by relatives of the kidnapped in different police stations and in the complaint presented by the Movement for the Liberation of Equatorial Guinea III Republic, presented as popular accusation. The investigations have been kept secret for months. After the investigation came to light, the vice president and son of the dictator accused Spain of “interference” and wanting to “humiliate” his country.
Pedraz refuses to arrest Obiang’s son and orders the seizure of his assets
In an order dated December 10, the judge investigating the case, Santiago Pedraz, ordered that those investigated be taken to the National Court as soon as they were located by the Police in Spain, although he did so without starting the arrest mechanisms. which implies an arrest warrant. In that resolution, the instructor affirms that “it is not appropriate to agree to judicial detention”, but in the event of “detecting” their “presence” the agents will carry out the procedures that are “necessary” to ensure that they are “brought to justice”. He did so at the request of the Police, who suspected that those investigated could travel to Spain for the Christmas holidays.
Just over two weeks later, on December 29, the Police informed the judge that they had located Obiang’s son, Carmelo Ovono Obiang, at the Meliá Castilla hotel in Madrid. But the magistrate refused to stop him. In a resolution dated that same day, Pedraz agreed that the agents would limit themselves to notifying him of the complaint and that he be required to designate a lawyer and an address in Spain to notify him. The prosecutor in the case, Vicente González Mota, did reiterate his request that the person investigated be placed at “judicial disposal”, according to a document consulted by elDiario.es. In that order of December 10, the judge did agree to block the assets of those investigated in Spain after imposing a joint bond of 1.2 million euros on them.
