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La Sala de lo Penal de la Audiencia Nacional ha acordado dictar orden de búsqueda y captura internacional contra Carmelo Ovono Obiang, secretario de Estado de la Presidencia de Guinea Ecuatorial e hijo del presidente Teodoro Obiang, por el secuestro y torturas de cuatro opositores, uno de ellos un español muerto en circunstancias no aclaradas. La decisión de los tres magistrados es consecuencia del recurso de apelación planteado por los querellantes, las familias de las víctimas, contra la negativa del juez Santiago Pedraz, instructor del caso, a pedir la detención de Ovono Obiang, del ministro del Interior, Nicolás Obama, y de Isaac Nguema Endo, director de Seguridad, todos investigados en España por delitos de secuestro y torturas con finalidad terrorista.
Durante la instrucción, el juez se ha negado, en varias ocasiones, a dictar la orden de búsqueda y captura internacional a Interpol que reclaman desde el pasado mes de marzo el fiscal Vicente González Mota y los querellantes. También, cuando los tres investigados le dieron plantón el pasado mes de marzo y no acudieron a prestar declaración por videoconferencia. Antes habían logrado evitar su declaración presencial alegando “compromisos públicos” que les impedían viajar. Argumento que bastó al magistrado para citarles por videoconferencia. La previsible declaración de rebeldía nunca llegó.
La decisión de la Sala de lo Penal, a la que ha tenido acceso EL PAÍS, señala que los tres investigados se encuentran en situación de rebeldía pese a habérseles facilitado la posibilidad de declarar por videoconferencia. Los magistrados destacan que Pedraz no ha expuesto en ninguna de sus providencias ningún motivo razonado por el que decide no librar las órdenes de búsqueda y captura del hijo del dictador y de los otros dos altos cargos de su Gobierno.
Sobre la falta de indicios contra los tres investigados que argumentó el juez instructor, la sala concluye que la causa ha aportado durante más de dos años datos suficientes que “apuntan a su posible implicación” en los hechos que se indagan. Así, resaltan su posible relación con la agencia de detectives que vigiló a los cuatro secuestrados y las transferencias en la cuenta del hijo de Obiang de importantes cantidades de dinero. Sobre la competencia de Pedraz para investigar el caso, los magistrados ponen de relieve que las “propias providencias del instructor explicaron con claridad los motivos por los que indiciariamente sería competente la jurisdicción española”.
Tercer varapalo
Several weeks ago the same court also rectified Judge Pedraz and forced him to convert his previous proceedings into an ordinary summary.
A relevant decision because from now on only the magistrates of this body are competent to file the case.
This decision of the Second Section of the Criminal Chamber of the National Court was adopted on the same day that Pedraz decided to cede jurisdiction of the case to Equatorial Guinea, accepting an alleged investigation opened for the same events in the former Spanish colony against the security leadership of the African country, made up of Ovono, the autocrat's son;
Nicolás Obama, Minister of the Interior;
and Isaac Nguema Endo, Director of Security.
The new decision of the Criminal Court is the third setback that the investigating judge in this case has received.
Last September, this same court ordered that the origin of the 793,000 euros that Carmelo Ovono Obiang deposited in 200 and 500 euro bills into his BBVA account in Madrid be investigated.
Account closed by the bank after warnings from its Compliance service.
The magistrates ask that the use and origin of this money be investigated to see if it served “as an essential tool” to finance the espionage, kidnapping and torture of the four opponents of the dictator's regime residing in Spain.
For Pedraz there are no indications of laundering in these money movements and in his filing order, despite the order received, he once again defended the same thesis.
The judge affirms that there is no indication that he had been used to monitor, deceive and kidnap the victims, one of whom, Julio Obama, 61, died in January 2022 in Equatorial Guinea.
And he assures that the monitoring, accredited by the Police, of 15 detectives of the opponents of the Obiang regime is not a crime.
The authorities of the former Spanish colony have refused to repatriate Obama's body, despite the demand of the judge, his relatives and all parties in the European Parliament.
Foreign Affairs does not know the whereabouts and state of health of the three kidnapped people and for more than a year no Spanish representative has been allowed to visit them.
land in between
Carmelo Ovono, 44 years old, with residence, properties and companies in Spain, has been in Malabo since on December 29, 2022, Judge Pedraz ordered the Police to hand him the complaint that was being processed against him.
Obiang's son, who was spending the night in a central hotel in Madrid, took a plane that same morning and has not set foot on Spanish territory again.
Weeks before, the magistrate had ordered the agents to detain him at the Madrid-Barajas airport, where a police operation was awaiting him, transfer him to the National Court and seize his mobile phone and electronic devices.
On that occasion, the person in charge of Intelligence abroad in Equatorial Guinea changed his travel plans and he did not appear.
During the investigation of the case, Pedraz has not explained in his rulings and records that change in criteria that caused discomfort among the agents of the General Information Commissariat who were secretly investigating this case.
The defense of the three investigated is represented by Javier Gómez Bermúdez, former judge of the National Court, and former colleague of the investigator of the case.
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