Obiang's son investigated for alleged torture asks to testify by videoconference but advances that he will not speak

He alleges that he will remain silent because he does not know the statements of protected witnesses

MADRID, 8 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The defense of Carmelo Ovono Obiang, son of the president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang, has asked the National Court that his statement before the judge for the alleged kidnapping and torture of Spanish citizens who were opponents of the regime be carried out by videoconference because his government responsibilities prevent him from making the trip to Spain.

In the letter, to which Europa Press has had access, Carmelo Ovono Obiang and another of those investigated, Isaac Nguema Ondo, thus request that their appearance before Judge Santiago Pedraz "be carried out through a videoconference platform" and offer several: ZOOM, Skype or CISCO from the Ministry of Justice.

"The request is based on the fact that both Carmelo and Isaac are senior officials of the Government of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea. Their public commitments prevent them from traveling to Spain in the coming months due to the political and health situation in the Republic of Equatorial Guinea ", they add.

It was at the end of February when the Central Investigating Court set a date for that statement by Carmelo Ovono and the two leaders of his government, Nicolás Obama Nchama and Issac Nguema Ondo, in the framework of the case opened for the alleged kidnapping and torture of two Spanish citizens integrated into an opposition movement to the political regime of the African country.

Now, the defense of Obiang's son also advances that in the statement both investigated "are going to avail themselves of their right not to testify." And it warns that this is so because they have not had the opportunity to exercise the right to defense and to comply with the principle of contradiction with respect to protected witnesses who have testified in court without the procedural representatives being present.

For this reason, the defense understands that it is "totally disproportionate to have a high-ranking representative of a government come to hold demonstrations when it is feasible to do so through a videoconference system." And he supports his request by saying that he is endorsed by an obvious legal and jurisprudential protection.

On the other hand, the defense takes advantage of its brief to request that the court, after several weeks since the last update of the cloud justice system, proceed to update it, given that the last event that occurs on said platform is February 3.

Legal sources consulted by this agency indicate that Pedraz has requested the Public Ministry and the rest of the parties to rule on this petition before deciding on it.

It was on October 31 when Judge Santiago Pedraz admitted for processing a complaint filed by the Movement for the Liberation of Equatorial Guinea Third Republic (MLGE3R) itself against the son of Obiang, Secretary of State for Foreign Security in Equatorial Guinea, and against Nicolás Obama Nchama, Minister of National Security of Equatorial Guinea. Just a month later, the instructor issued a new order agreeing to extend the initial complaint and agreeing to have a third person investigated: the general director of Presidential Security, Issac Nguema.

The complaint focuses on the alleged kidnapping and subsequent torture suffered by four members of the MLGE3R: the residents of Spain Martín Obiang and Bienvenido Ndong and the Spanish nationals Feliciano Efa and Julio Obama Mefuman -- who died in the Oveng Azem prison ( Mongomo) for those alleged tortures--. The events would have occurred on a trip from Madrid to Juba, in South Sudan, where they would have been captured on November 15, 2019.

According to the complaint, to which Europa Press had access, all of them were "clandestinely transferred in an official plane of the Equatorial Guinean regime, and locked up in a detention center in Oveng Asem, in the Mongomo demarcation, where they continue until these days". "They have been tortured and forced to ask for forgiveness from the leader of the Equatoguinean regime under pressure in front of public TV in Equatorial Guinea," the letter states.

He himself maintains that both Ovono Obiang and Obama Nchama were present both on the official plane in which the kidnapping was carried out and directing "some of the torture sessions in the basements of the prison." In addition, he explains that both defendants "reside in Spain, have a stable address, and also could be found" in national territory.

The kidnapping would have occurred, according to the complaint, following an invitation from a friend to the four opponents to travel from South Sudan to Ethiopia. That invitation would have turned out to be a trap to undertake his capture and his subsequent transfer to Equatorial Guinea.

The two Spanish nationals, Efa Mangue and Obama Mefuman --already deceased--, would have been accused of alleged participation in a coup d'état against the Equatorial Guinean Government for which they would have been sentenced in a military trial to 90-year sentences and 70 years in prison respectively.

The General Information Commissioner sent the investigator an extensive report on December 1 in which they focused on the "numerous cases of disappearances, forced transfers, torture, and even murders and death sentences, of well-known opponents residing in the exterior" of Equatorial Guinea.

The investigators consider that the testimonies recorded by the victims and the statements of the protected witnesses working in the case "are forceful evidence that determines the existence of the crimes under investigation, mainly kidnapping and torture, with two of the victims being Spanish citizens and another two Equatoguineans residing and taking refuge in Spain".

The Police assure that these crimes would have occurred "within the framework" of a "systematic persecution, turning them into crimes against humanity." "Two of the direct culprits identified by the commission of the accredited crimes, Nicolás Obama Nchama and Carmelo Ovono Obiang, together with their families, have a stable and accredited residence in Spain and others, such as Isaac Nguema, visit our country periodically," he points out. .

The report also makes it clear that "the investigated case has some clear elements in common with the rest of the kidnappings carried out in recent years from different African countries to national citizens or residents of Europe."

In this context, the Police stress that "the political activity of the victims, the motivation and itinerary of the trip, the identity of another kidnapped non-resident in Spain as well as the identity of some of the people who were allegedly used to deceive the victims and cause their displacement".

Likewise, the researchers affirm that "these victims or the opposition groups to which they belong are threats against State Security or against people."