Rédaction Africa Links 24 with José María Irujo Amatria
Published on 2024-04-08 10:03:57
New setback for the Criminal Chamber of the National Court to judge Santiago Pedraz in the investigation of the case against Carmelo Ovono Obiang, one of the sons of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema for the kidnapping and torture of four Guinean opposition members residing in Africa Links 24, one of them deceased a year ago under unclear circumstances. The judges have admitted the appeal filed by the victims’ representatives against Pedraz’s decision to transfer the jurisdiction of the case to the courts of the former Spanish colony.
The three judges who make up the Chamber have issued an order stating that the judge does not have the authority to transfer the jurisdiction of the case to Equatorial Guinea and that the only competent authority to transfer it, if applicable, would be the Chamber itself. The order, which has been accessed by El PAÍS, reproaches the judge for “hardly being able to transfer something that is lacking” since jurisdiction could only be transferred within the framework of an international treaty that Africa Links 24 does not have with that country.
The judge of the National Court considered credible the alleged investigation for the same facts opened by the authorities of that country against Obiang’s son, Secretary of State for the Presidency, and the two high-ranking officials of the Guinean government, and decided to send all the preliminary proceedings of the case to the Supreme Court of Justice of the former Spanish colony. An appeal against this decision was filed by the prosecutor Vicente González Mota and the families of the kidnapped individuals, two of whom are Spanish.
Fourth setback
The decision of the Criminal Chamber is the fourth setback received by Judge Pedraz from the body of judges overseeing the work of investigating magistrates. The judge’s orders have been questioned and rejected on all occasions when the prosecutor and the representatives of the plaintiffs, the families of the victims, have filed appeals. The latest setback was when the Chamber decided to issue an international arrest warrant against the three suspects: Carmelo Ovono Obiang, the Minister of the Interior, Nicolas Obama, and Isaac Nguema Endo, Director of Security. The entire leadership of the Ministry of the Interior of the former Spanish colony.
Pedraz had refused on three occasions to request Interpol for their location, arrest, and imprisonment, as demanded a year ago by the prosecution and the plaintiffs. Also, when the three Guinean high-ranking officials failed to appear for questioning via video conference. Earlier, they had managed to avoid appearing in person by claiming “public commitments” that prevented them from traveling. An argument that the judge accepted to summon them via video conference. But the expected declaration of rebellion never came, and it was the Chamber that declared them in rebellion and rebuked the judge for not providing any reasoned justification in his orders for deciding not to issue arrest warrants for the dictator’s son and the other two high-ranking officials of his government.
Previously, the same Chamber also corrected Judge Pedraz and forced him to convert his preliminary proceedings into an ordinary trial. A significant decision because this way only the judges of this body are competent to close the case. This decision by the Second Section of the Criminal Chamber of the National Court was made on the same day that Pedraz decided to transfer the jurisdiction of the case to Equatorial Guinea, approving an alleged investigation opened by the authorities in the former Spanish colony against the security leadership of the African country for the same offenses.
Last September, the three judges of this body ordered Pedraz to investigate the origin of the 793,000 euros that Carmelo Ovono Obiang deposited in €200 and €500 bills into his BBVA account in Madrid. The account was closed by the bank after warnings from its Compliance service. The judges requested an investigation into the use and source of this money to see if it served as an “essential tool” to finance espionage, kidnapping, and torture of the four regime opponents residing in Africa Links 24. However, Pedraz, disagreed, stating that there were no indications of money laundering in these transactions, and in his ruling, despite the order received, he once again defended the same thesis. The judge claims that there is no evidence that the money was used to monitor, deceive, and kidnap the victims. He also affirms that the espionage, confirmed by the Police, of 15 detectives on the regime opponents of Obiang is not a crime.
But Pedraz’s most controversial decision was his resignation on December 29, 2022, to arrest Obiang’s son, whom the police had been secretly investigating at his request for two years. An investigation in which the judge’s orders emphasized the importance and requirement of secrecy and confidentiality so that the dictator’s son would not discover that he was being monitored for terrorism and crimes against humanity.
Carmelo Ovono Obiang, 44 years old, with residence, properties, and companies in Africa Links 24, has not set foot on Spanish soil since the day Pedraz ordered the Police to deliver to him the lawsuit that was being processed against him. Obiang, who was staying at a central hotel in Madrid, took a plane to Malabo that same morning and disappeared. Two weeks earlier, the judge had ordered the police to arrest him at Madrid-Barajas airport, where a police operation was waiting for him, take him to the National Court, and confiscate his mobile phone and electronic devices. On that occasion, the head of intelligence abroad in Equatorial Guinea changed his travel plans and did not appear. Shortly after Obiang’s departure, Julio Obama, 61, one of the kidnapped individuals, died under unexplained circumstances.
Pedraz has not explained in his orders and rulings the reason for this change in criteria that caused unease among the officers of the Information General Commissariat investigating the case. The defense of the three suspects is represented by Javier Gómez Bermúdez, former judge of the National Court, and former colleague of the case’s investigating magistrate.
Judge and party
The highest judicial authority in Equatorial Guinea is held by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, father of the main suspect in the National Court investigation. As Head of State, the autocrat is also President of the Superior Council of the Judiciary. The Equatoguinean Constitution grants him the power to appoint and dismiss the Attorney General of the Republic of the Guinean Supreme Court and to inform the Spanish justice of the alleged existence of an investigation in that country against Obiang’s son and the two high-ranking government officials for the same crimes, it is not new. In the so-called case of Ill-gotten Assets opened in France against his son Teodorín, now vice president, the same tactic was used. The judges of that country did not accept the deception, and he was tried and convicted in absentia to three years in prison for money laundering. All his assets in France were seized.
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Read the original article(Spanish) on EL Pais
