Pedraz renounces investigating Obiang's son for kidnapping and torture and transfers the case to Equatorial Guinea

Judge Santiago Pedraz has agreed to cede jurisdiction to Equatorial Guinea to investigate one of the sons of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the Minister of the Interior and the Director General of Security of that country accused in Spain of the kidnapping, torture and disappearance with terrorist purpose of four Guinean opponents residing in Spain, one of whom died a year ago in unclear circumstances.

The judge of the National Court considers credible the alleged investigation opened by the authorities of that country against Carmelo Ovono Obiang, Secretary of State of the Presidency, and agrees in an order to which EL PAÍS has had access, that all proceedings be forwarded prior reports of the case to the Supreme Court of Justice of the former Spanish colony, including the testimonies of protected witnesses who have testified in Spain. The decision can be appealed before the Chamber.

Judge and jury

Teodoro Obiang, father of the main investigator, is, as Head of State, the president of the Superior Council of the Judiciary and the highest authority. The Equatoguinean Constitution also attributes the power to appoint and remove from office the attorney general of the republic. To save his son Teodorín, current vice president, from the clutches of French justice, the autocrat carried out an identical maneuver in 2017 in the so-called case of poorly acquired goods. The judges of that country did not admit 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.

The four opponents, Feliciano Efa Mangue, Julio Obama Mefuman, Martín Obiang Ondo and Bienvenido Ndong Ondo were kidnapped by deception, in November 2019, in Juba, capital of South Sudan, transferred on President Obiang's plane to the Guinean city of Mongomo, admitted to the cells of the Oveng Azem prison and tortured. They were put on trial for an alleged coup d'état and sentenced to sentences of between 60 and 90 years. Obama, 61 years old and with dual nationality, Spanish and Equatoguinean, died in January of last year. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, and all the parties in the European Parliament have unsuccessfully requested the repatriation of his body.

Controversial decisions

Judge Pedraz's decision to cede jurisdiction to a country without democratic guarantees, a cession contrary to the requests of prosecutor Vicente González Mota and the plaintiffs' lawyer Aitor Martínez, has not been a surprise. The magistrate's actions have caused “stupor” and “stunning” in the judicial media consulted as it is a sensitive case where crimes against humanity are being investigated. Foreign Affairs acknowledges that for more than a year it has not heard anything about the three kidnapped people who remain imprisoned.

On November 29, 2022, the magistrate took a radical and unexpected turn in the secret investigation that he had opened a year earlier against Carmelo Ovono Obiang, the dictator's son, with residence, accounts, properties and companies in Spain. That night the police investigating the case informed him that he was sleeping in a hotel in Madrid and that they were watching him. Pedraz ordered that he be given a copy of the complaint and that he appoint a lawyer. Two weeks earlier, when they were waiting for Spain to arrive at the Madrid-Barajas airport and a police operation was awaiting him, he had ordered the opposite: that they arrest him, seize his cell phone and electronic elements, and bring him to justice. That same morning, Ovono Obiang took a plane to Malabo and has not set foot on Spanish soil again. Fifteen days later Julio Obama died. Police sources did not hide his discomfort at the change in judicial criteria.

During the investigation, the judge has refused, on several occasions, to issue the international search and arrest warrant requested by the prosecution and the complainants. Also, when the three investigated: Obiang's son, Nicolás Obama, Minister of the Interior, and Isaac Nguema Endo, Director of Security, stood him up last March and did not appear to give a statement by videoconference. Previously, they had managed to avoid their in-person statement, alleging “public commitments” that prevented them from traveling. Argument that was enough for the magistrate to summon them by videoconference. The predictable declaration of rebellion never came.

Now, the judge accepts the rogatory commission sent several weeks ago by the Guinean authorities in which it is stated that they have initiated a procedure for the same facts and assures that “the requirements are met so that the crimes investigated in Spain and with “This will allow the transfer of jurisdiction.” “The request for transfer is clear in that it indicates that it concerns the same facts and it is clear that a procedure has been initiated for its investigation and those investigated are not in Spanish territory.” The rogatory sent to Spain does not include any details about statements, investigations, requests to those investigated, inquiries or other actions required in any procedure.

Monitoring and surveillance

Pedraz adds that he cannot doubt that these are other facts or “that the procedure suffers from a lack of impartiality or is merely instrumental.” He argues his decision by pointing out that there is no basis to maintain that there are acts committed in Spain and affirms that on the contrary they were committed in South Sudan and Equatorial Guinea. For the magistrate, the monitoring and surveillance in Madrid of the victims of 15 detectives and the deception to get them to travel to Juba “are mere manifestations” that are not accredited. He points out that this espionage, demonstrated in a detailed Police report, is not a crime, that there is no evidence that he obeyed it and that it occurred a year before the kidnapping. The Police identified Filemón Ndong Molo, general director of Security of the Presidency, as the mysterious man who paid the detective agencies. The order adds that Obiang's son's account at BBVA, closed by the bank after he deposited 800,000 euros in 500 bills, does not indicate signs of money laundering.

The head of the Investigative Court Number 5 rejects the plaintiffs' request for Juan Carlos Ondo Angue, former president of the Supreme Court of Equatorial Guinea, to testify, the body that is supposedly now investigating the defendants. Pedraz affirms “that the Guinean regime or its judiciary is not being judged.” This witness has presented in the case an informative note addressed to President Obiang on October 20, 2017 in which he reported that in his capacity as president of that organization he had opened a “fictitious criminal case” to avoid the trial to which he was being subjected. his son Teodorín was subdued in France. With his testimony he wanted to demonstrate that the same maneuver is now intended to be carried out. Ondo had to flee his country protected by several European ambassadors, including the Spanish, when armed and hooded men showed up to arrest him at his home. Since then he has lived in Paris and has just been named leader of the opposition in exile.

The defense of the three defendants is represented by the former judge of the National Court and former colleague of Pedraz Javie
r Gómez Bermúdez, today at the Ramón y Cajal Abogados office.

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