Eduardo González
The Audiencia Nacional (National Court) has summoned to testify three high-ranking security officials of Equatorial Guinea, among them a son of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, for their alleged involvement in the kidnapping and torture of four Equatoguinean opponents, two of them of Spanish nationality and one of them, Julio Obama Mefuman, who died in custody in unclear circumstances.
According to an order of the Central Court of Instruction number 5, to which the agency Europa Press has had access, the declarations have been set for March 28th. The summons comes after the judge in charge of the 5th Court of Instruction of the Audiencia Nacional, Santiago Pedraz, admitted a complaint filed by the opposition group Movement for the Liberation of Equatorial Guinea Third Republic (MLGE3R) against the head of the Foreign Security Service, Carmelo Ovono Obiang, son of President Obiang, and two other senior security officials, the Minister of State for Internal Security, Nicolas Obama Nchama, and the Director General of Presidential Security, Isaac Ngema Endo.
Both Ovono Obiang and Nicolas Obama have strong ties with Spain, since the former has been living in our country since 2020 (specifically in Marbella) and is married to a Spanish woman, and the latter owns a house in the Madrid town of Villalbilla and is the father of five children who live in Spain. Those who also have strong ties to Spain are the alleged victims of the investigated. Specifically, Feliciano Efa Mangue and Julio Obama Mefuman have Spanish nationality and Martin Obiang Ondo Mbasogo and Bienvenido Ndong Ondo Eyang are two Equatoguinean citizens who have been legally residing in Madrid for more than fifteen years.
All four belong to the MLGE3R and were sentenced in March 2020 by a military court to prison terms ranging from 60 to 90 years for alleged coup d’état, following a trial marred by “serious procedural irregularities,” according to the American Bar Association’s Center for Human Rights. Both judges and prosecutors were appointed by President Obiang by executive decree.
Julio Obama Mefuman, a former corporal in the Spanish Army and sentenced to 60 years, died in mid-January in Bata hospital. His party claimed that he had died as a result of torture and “strongly” urged the Spanish government to “immediately” break diplomatic relations with Equatorial Guinea. The Malabo regime immediately assured that he had died “of illness”. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned at that time the Equatorial Guinean ambassador to ask for explanations and to request a pardon for Feliciano Efa Mangue.
The Vice President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mangue, accused Spain in early January of “interference, humiliation and lack of respect for sovereignty” in response to the investigation opened by the Audiencia Nacional. Both Ovono Obiang and Vice President Obiang Nguema Mangue himself, popularly known as Teodorin, are children of President Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (it is estimated that the president has around thirty children with at least five different women).
In response to these accusations, sources from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs assured The Diplomat at the same time that the Spanish Government respects, “as it could not be otherwise, the judicial processes, as well as the resolutions that may be dictated by the courts”. They also indicated that, “from the consular point of view, at all times the Spanish Embassy in Malabo and the Consulate General in Bata have carried out before the Equatoguinean authorities the appropriate steps for the protection of the two Spanish-Ecuatoguinean citizens”, including “the appropriate consular assistance that the circumstances have allowed”.
The facts
According to the complaint filed before the National Court by the MLGE3R, the three investigated were traveling on the presidential plane in which the four detainees were transferred to Malabo after being allegedly abducted in late 2019 in South Sudan for their alleged association with an alleged coup attempt in 2017.
According to the information received, they were first detained in Black Beach prison in Malabo and then transferred to a detention center in Oveng Asem on the mainland, after which they were “tortured and forced to apologize to the leader of the Equatoguinean regime under pressure in front of Equatorial Guinea’s public TV.” Likewise, Ovono Obiang and Obama Nchama were present both in the official plane with which the abduction was carried out and in directing “some of the torture sessions in the basements of the penitentiary”.
The investigators consider that the testimonies recorded by the victims and the statements of the protected witnesses “are strong evidence that determine the existence of the crimes under investigation, mainly kidnapping and torture”. Besides, the police have assured that these crimes would have taken place “within the framework” of a “systematic persecution, turning them into crimes against humanity”.
Malabo: “Spain disturbs the internal politics of Equatorial Guinea”
On February 16, the European Parliament held the “dictatorial Equatoguinean regime” of Teodoro Obiang Nguema responsible for the death of Julio Obama Mefuman. It also demanded an end to the “fierce persecution” of the democratic opposition and urged the EU and the Member States to “suspend all military, police and security cooperation” with Equatorial Guinea.
In this regard, the third deputy prime minister and in charge of Human Rights of the Government of Equatorial Guinea, Alfonso Nsue Mokuy, took advantage of his intervention before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva this past Monday to denounce “Spain’s permanent attitude of disturbing the internal politics of Equatorial Guinea”, which “has induced the European Parliament to pass the resolution” of February 16.
He also assured that all the MLGE3R defendants had participated in 2017 in “an attempted mercenary invasion organized by the enemies detractors of peace” and were “tried with all procedural guarantees”, and denounced that “the resolution of the European Parliament is based on speculation, since there is no evidence that the trial against those referred to was carried out without guarantees” nor “that Obama Mefuman died as a result of torture”. “On the contrary, it is on record that Mr. Obama Mefuman suffered from several chronic pathologies and died as a consequence of the same, therefore, of natural death, having at all times received medical assistance in several hospitals in the country at the expense of the Equatoguinean Government as well as Spanish consular assistance”, it stated.
