Families of the two detained in Guinea collect 45,000 signatures to demand government intervention

Eduardo González The families of Javier Marañón Montero and David Rodríguez Ballesta, the two Spanish citizens detained in Equatorial Guinea in January 2025 on charges of bribery and fraud, have collected more than 45,000 signatures to demand the government’s “urgent” intervention for their release. Laura Marañón, Javier Marañón’s sister, will register the more than 45,000 signatures this Wednesday, March 25, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ask the Spanish government to “intervene urgently and directly for the freedom of the two, who have been in Black Beach prison for more than 14 months,” according to Change.org, the American civic organization that collects signatures and publishes online petitions. “They are innocent workers paying for the actions of others,” Laura Marañón declared. “David and my brother Javier could die if action isn't taken soon. We don't want condolences; we want them released from there immediately,” she warned. “They have been unjustly imprisoned since January 2025. They can't see doctors, they can't speak with their lawyers, and their families can't visit them,” she asserted. According to Laura Marañón, her brother Javier has already lost “more than 20 kilos” and David needs “constant medication that they don't know if he's receiving.” “It is urgent that the Spanish government act firmly and immediately. My brother and David could die; they are in a critical situation,” she insisted. In addition to registering the signatures, family and friends of David and Javier will gather at the entrance to the Congress of Deputies that same day. “We have been waiting for more than a year for help that never arrives,” denounced Aarón, another brother of Javier Marañón. “We’ve come to Congress because we no longer want mediation from the Embassy; we want the Government to act directly, and we hope that members of parliament from other parties will come out in support of us,” he warned. The petition, launched last October by Laura Marañón through Change.org, asserts that David and Javier “are being detained without any responsibility for the events under investigation, after attending a meeting, without holding any management position or having any connection to company decisions. They are innocent workers.” Last July, the text continues, the families sought protection from the European Parliament, and after a plenary debate, a resolution was unanimously approved “calling on European institutions to act in favor of their freedom, but there have been no results.” “Stop turning your backs on these Spanish workers,” the petition adds. “The Government’s inaction could cost them their lives; we need them to act now,” it insists. “It is urgent that the Spanish government act. It cannot be allowed that two innocent Spanish citizens, without charges, remain in inhumane conditions and with their lives in danger,” the text warns. The arrests Javier Marañón Montero and David Rodríguez Ballesta were arrested in Equatorial Guinea in January 2025 on charges of bribery and fraud, as part of an investigation opened by the Attorney General's Office into the alleged payment of illegal commissions to secure a public contract for the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) project. According to opposition sources, Francisca Obiang Jiménez, daughter of President Teodoro Obiang, may be implicated in this network of illegal commissions involving Spanish businesspeople, high-ranking regime officials, and several shell companies. [caption id="attachment_127620" align="alignnone" width="750"] Javier Marañón Montero and David Rodríguez Ballesta[/caption] In April of the same year, after Guinean authorities installed hidden microphones in one of the prison's visiting rooms to eavesdrop on conversations between the two prisoners and Spanish diplomats, the Attorney General, Anatolio Nzang Nguema, held a press conference to demand that the Spanish Embassy in Malabo "respect judicial independence." For his part, the Vice President of the Republic and head of the security apparatus (and Obiang's eldest son), Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, ordered the complete isolation of both businessmen and prohibited them from receiving any type of visit, not even from their lawyers or family members. The European Parliament and Foreign Ministry On October 9, 2025, the European Parliament plenary session denounced the “arbitrary detention” of Marañón and Rodríguez Ballesta, as well as “the unacceptable conditions of detention and the ill-treatment inflicted on prisoners” in this country and recalled that both were transferred last April to Black Beach prison, “known for its inhumane conditions and systematic human rights violations.” The Parliament also denounced the “arbitrary detention” of the two Spanish citizens and the “unacceptable conditions” in which they have been held since then, and called on the authorities to take immediate and unconditional measures, such as lifting their pretrial detention, to guarantee their well-being and respect for their rights, particularly the right to a fair trial, as well as to legal counsel and medical attention. Marañón Montero, who is on hunger strike, “must receive urgent treatment,” the statement emphasized. On October 8, the day before the European Parliament's statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed, in written response to a question from the People's Party in the Congress, that staff from the Spanish Embassy in Malabo had visited Javier Marañón Montero and David Rodríguez Ballesta on “approximately twenty occasions” and that the Spanish Embassy in Malabo “has been closely monitoring the case since becoming aware of it on January 22.” “In any case, the Spanish Embassy in Malabo will continue its numerous efforts with local authorities to guarantee smooth access for Spanish nationals in order to provide them with proper consular assistance,” the Ministry continued. “Finally, it is important to emphasize that the Spanish Embassy in Malabo is in close contact with the families of those detained in order to keep them informed of developments and the actions being taken,” the response concludes. Malabo version On December 11, the ambassador of Equatorial Guinea to the UN, Anatolio Ndong Mba, assured the Security Council (in response to the Secretary-General's latest report on the situation in Central Africa) that the two Spaniards are accused of “corruption, fraud, embezzlement of public funds and money laundering” and that “the defendants are being treated with dignity and humanity, enjoy regular consular visits and remain in pretrial detention by a reasoned judicial decision to prevent flight, with the presumption of innocence guaranteed until a final judgment.”

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