Spanish justice has summoned a son of the Equatoguinean president, as well as two other security officials of this country, to answer charges of the kidnapping and torture of two Spanish citizens, indicates a court document consulted this Tuesday by AFP.
A judge from the National Audience, a high court in Madrid specializing in sensitive cases, summoned Carmelo Ovono Obiang, son of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and head of that country's foreign intelligence service, on March 28, according to information revealed by the Spanish daily El País.
The magistrate also summoned two other senior officials of this small Central African country: Nicolás Obama Nchama, Minister of State and Head of Homeland Security, as well as the Director General of Presidential Security, Isaac Nguema Endo, according to a document to which AFP had access.
These three people, presented as the three most senior security officials in this former Spanish colony, are suspected of having kidnapped and tortured four Equatoguinean opponents, two of them also having Spanish nationality, one of whom is died in January in unclear circumstances.
Repeated torture sessions
Citing judicial sources,
El País
indicates that the lawyers of these three Equatoguinean officials are resorting to "
delaying maneuvers
" to avoid having to respond to the summons of judge Santiago Pedraz.
At the end of December, Carmelo Ovono Obiang had been located in a large hotel in Madrid, but the same judge of the National Audience had given up asking the police to arrest him for questioning, contenting himself with informing him of the complaint. filed against him, says
El País
.
The person concerned then immediately left Spain to return to Equatorial Guinea, whose regime is reputed to be one of the most authoritarian in the world.
At the end of January, the Spanish justice had demanded the repatriation of the body of the latter, Julio Obama Mefuman in order to be able to carry out an autopsy, but without result so far.
The Equatoguinean government affirms that the opponent died "
in a hospital (...) as a result of an illness from which he suffered
".
But the Movement for the Liberation of the Third Republic of Equatorial Guinea (MLGE3R), an opposition movement in exile in Spain to which Julio Obama Mefuman belonged, claims that he was tortured and died in a prison in this small country.
Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, another son of the head of state who is also vice-president of Equatorial Guinea, accused Spain of "
interference
" after the opening of this investigation.
According to
El País
, which had access to reports from the Spanish police, the four opponents were kidnapped at the end of 2019 in South Sudan and taken by force to Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea.
They were then allegedly subjected to repeated sessions of torture, in the presence of the three senior officials targeted by the investigation.
According to
El País
, which cited in January the accounts of "
two protected witnesses
" and police investigation reports, these three officials even "
participated
at these sessions.
Equatorial Guinea has been ruled since 1979 by 80-year-old Teodoro Obiang, who holds the world record for longevity in power for a sitting head of state, excluding monarchies.