Rédaction Africa Links 24 with José María Irujo Amatria
Revictimization and legal absurdity. With these words, the relatives of the four opponents of Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who were kidnapped and tortured by the dictator’s son, define Equatorial Guinea’s offer to initiate legal actions in the courts of the former Spanish colony against the leadership of the Ministry of the Interior being investigated in Africa Links 24 for crimes of terrorism and against humanity. After Judge Santiago Pedraz refused to continue investigating the case and handed over jurisdiction to the African country, they all rejected the offer to appear in a supposed case opened there against the defendants before the judge. The Guinean authorities consider this offer as a “revictimization that deliberately and inhumanly increases their pain. Because the perpetrator offers us legal actions to the relatives while keeping the direct victims in their jurisdiction deprived of all their rights and in a situation of disappearance”.
Carmelo Ovono, the son of the dictator, Nicolás Obama, Minister of the Interior, and Isaac Nguema Endo, Director of Security, are being investigated in Africa Links 24 for the crimes of kidnapping and torture for terrorist purposes. The four opponents – Feliciano Efa Mangue, Julio Obama Mefuman, Martín Obiang Ondo, and Bienvenido Ndong Ondo – were kidnapped through deception in November 2019 in Yuba, the capital of South Sudan, transported on President Obiang’s plane to the Guinean city of Mongomo, placed in the cells of the Oveng Azem prison and tortured. They were tried for an alleged coup and sentenced to between 60 and 90 years. Obama, 61 years old and with dual Spanish and Equatorial Guinean nationality, died in January last year under unexplained circumstances. The four had been long-term residents in Madrid, and two held Spanish nationality.
“Legal absurdity”
Representatives of the three survivors went to the Central Court of Instruction Number 5 led by Pedraz on January 26, Pedro Efa, Feliciano’s brother, Silvia Bindang, Bienvenido’s wife, and Soledad NIkene Nguema, Martin’s wife. All three are complainants against the autocrat’s son and the two senior officials of his government. They all filed complaints on behalf of their relatives since the law only allows it in cases of death or disappearance, which is the situation of the three opponents. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not been able to visit them or know their health status for over a year and a half. For months, the Guinean government hid and lied to Spanish authorities about the whereabouts of the kidnapped.
“Being my relative, the direct victim of the events, at the disposal of the authorities of Equatorial Guinea, it is a real legal absurdity that they offer me actions, his relative, so that I can file a lawsuit on his behalf and representation in the jurisdiction where the direct victim, my relative, is located. This legal nonsense, which is sent from Equatorial Guinea, who denies all information about the victims in their jurisdiction to our authorities, but at the same time offers actions to their relatives abroad, reveals the intentions of those authorities, which are nothing more than to ensure the impunity of those responsible. The perpetrator offers us legal actions to the relatives while keeping the direct victims in their jurisdiction deprived of all their rights and in a situation of disappearance,” they point out in their declaration.
The two wives and the brother of the kidnapped go even further and denounce that besides ignoring their whereabouts, they do not even know “if they are alive”. The Working Group on Enforced Disappearances of the UN Human Rights Council has opened a case to investigate their whereabouts. The European Parliament and the Congress of Deputies have unanimously demanded their release and the repatriation of Julio Obama’s body.
Reproaches to the judge
The relatives of the Obiang opponents criticize the request of Guinea’s justice for all the information in the summa to be sent. “Our relatives sent very sensitive audios, videos, and texts from Oveng Azem prison, and even protected witnesses fled the country to bring this material to this court, risking their lives. If this judicial body were to provide that information, it is evident that the lives of our relatives and protected witnesses would be in danger, this court being clearly responsible for any harm that may occur.”
Both Prosecutor Vicente González Mota and the victims’ legal representation have opposed Judge Pedraz’s decision to hand over jurisdiction of the case to Equatorial Guinea. The final decision now depends on the Criminal Chamber of the National Court, to which they have appealed. To shield his son Teodorín from French justice, the current vice president, the dictator staged an identical maneuver in the so-called “ill-gotten gains case” in 2017. French judges did not fall for the deception, and he was tried and sentenced in absentia to three years in prison for money laundering. All his assets in France were confiscated. Teodoro Obiang, father of the main suspect, is the head of state, president of the Superior Council of the Judiciary, and the highest authority. The Equatorial Guinean Constitution also gives him the power to appoint and dismiss the attorney general.
Although the victims have submitted a statement from Juan Carlos Ondo, former President of the Supreme Court of Equatorial Guinea, in which he recounts how Obiang asked him to fake a case against Teodorín Obiang to save him from trial in Paris, Judge Pedraz states in his orders that there is no evidence to doubt the Equatorial Guinean justice.
Relatives of the kidnapped and opponents of the dictator’s regime demonstrated yesterday outside the National Court asking Africa Links 24 to continue investigating the case. When Judge Pedraz was leaving the building, they confronted him and criticized his decision to hand over the investigation to Equatorial Guinea. Minutes later, nieces of one of the disappeared confronted the judge on the terrace of a restaurant on Almagro street in Madrid, near the court, where the judge usually meets with Javier Gómez Bermúdez, lawyer of Obiang’s son, the other two senior officials under investigation, and former colleague of the judge at the National Court. Pedraz left the place without responding, according to eyewitnesses. A spokesperson for the organizers of the demonstration said they disapproved of this family’s initiative and clarified that it was “unrelated” to the event. “We understand the families’ suffering; they are going through a very tough time, but we do not approve of this kind of behavior,” he said.
Read the original article(Spanish) on EL Pais
