Equatorial Guinea opens an investigation into Obiang's son for torture to avoid his arrest by Spain

The Government of Equatorial Guinea has notified the opening of an alleged judicial investigation for torture against Carmelo Ovono Obiang, Secretary of State of the Presidency of Equatorial Guinea and son of the dictator Teodoro Obiang Nguema, as reported to the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a note verbal —official diplomatic communication— to which EL PAÍS has had access.

The initiative is interpreted in judicial media as a "clear and crude maneuver" to remove him from Spanish justice and prevent the National Court from issuing an international search and arrest warrant against him that the Prosecutor's Office has already claimed.

The alleged Guinean judicial investigation against Carmelo Obiang also extends to the two main positions at the top of the Ministry of the Interior of that country: Nicolás Obama, Minister of the Interior, and Isaac Nguema Endo, General Director of Security.

The three are charged in Spain by Judge Santiago Pedraz for the crimes of kidnapping and torture of four opponents, two of them Spanish, under the regime of the autocrat.

One of them, Julio Obama, 61, died on January 15 in circumstances that the Guinean authorities have not clarified.

Supplementary notes

The Guinean Executive affirms in its verbal note, dated March 6, that the acts of torture were committed in its territory and that "it has decided to establish its jurisdiction and investigate these allegations of torture based on the Convention against Torture" of 21 December 1984, ratified by the Kingdom of Spain.

This announcement is complemented by another verbal note, sent to Foreign Affairs on March 27, in which Equatorial Guinea did not recognize the Spanish competence to investigate its citizens, accused the Spanish courts of lack of collaboration and recalled that the four opponents had been tried and sentenced in their country for an alleged coup d'état.

The day after that verbal note, Obiang's son and the two senior officials had been summoned to testify by the judge at the National Court.

The notes verbales have been presented at the National Court by the defense of the defendants.

Judge Pedraz, far from issuing an international search and arrest warrant for the non-appearance of the three investigated, has asked the General Directorate for International Legal Cooperation to prove the existence of the alleged judicial investigation in Equatorial Guinea.

A criterion that contrasts with that of the prosecutor Vicente González Mota and that of the accusations, who have already requested that the arrest warrant be issued to Interpol.

Judge and jury

The plaintiffs have presented as evidence of the alleged judicial investigation an order of the Supreme Court of Justice of Equatorial Guinea, dated February 15, in which their names appear as defendants by the Prosecutor's Office of their country for illegal detention, kidnapping and torture of the four opponents.

That is, the same facts that are being investigated in Spain.

As instructor of this procedure, which opponents consulted describe as "fictitious", is Eliseo Mengue Nvo, the same one who participated in the confirmation of the sentence in absentia of members of the Movement for the Liberation of Equatorial Guinea, macro trial against the opposition to the autocrat in in which the four kidnapped and tortured were also sentenced.

That view was denounced by various international organizations and by the former UN Rapporteur against Torture Juan Méndez.

In any case, Obiang, as head of state, is the highest magistrate of the judiciary and also chairs the Superior Council of the Judiciary.

The Equatoguinean Constitution also attributes to him the power to appoint and remove from office the Attorney General of the Republic and his deputies.

On December 29, Pedraz changed his initial criteria and gave up arresting Obiang's son.

That night, the agents of the General Information Police Station who were investigating the case informed him that the head of Foreign Security of Equatorial Guinea was sleeping in a hotel in Madrid where he was being watched.

Against the criteria of the Prosecutor's Office and the legal representation of the complainants, the judge ordered that a copy of the complaint be delivered to him and that he appoint a lawyer.

That same morning, Ovono Obiang took a plane to Malabo.

He has not set foot on Spanish soil again.

Fifteen days after the precipitous departure from Spain of the high-ranking Guinean official, Julio Obama, 61, died in Mongomo, a Guinean town on the border with Gabon, one of the four prisoners kidnapped by deceit in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, transferred to Equatorial Guinea and tortured, according to details of the judicial investigation.

On December 10, when the agents were waiting for the dictator's son at the Madrid-Barajas airport, Pedraz had instead asked for his police arrest, transfer to court and that his mobile phone and any electronic device be confiscated.

The judge, the Spanish Government and the European Parliament have unsuccessfully demanded that the Equatorial Guinean authorities repatriate the body of Julio Obama to Spain to carry out an autopsy and that they "report the state of health and whereabouts of the other three victims ”.

They are Feliciano Efa Mangue, 43, who holds dual nationality, and the Equatorial Guineans residing in Madrid Martín Obiang Mbasogo, 45, and Bienvenido Ndong Ondo, 43. They are allegedly imprisoned in a Mongomo prison after being convicted of a military court sentenced to between 60 and 90 years for an alleged coup.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch denounced the trial for lack of guarantees.

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