They record and spread intimate images of the main witness in the torture case against Obiang's son

Juan Carlos Ondo, former president of the Supreme Court of Equatorial Guinea and main leader of the opposition to Teodoro Obiang in exile, has been the victim of an espionage operation that culminated in the placement of a hidden camera in the room of a central hotel in Paris that he occupied in the company of a woman. The private images of the former Guinean judge have been distributed through the personal account on In January 2023, Ondo confessed to EL PAÍS that he feared for his life during an interview in the French capital. Now, he unhesitatingly attributes the violation of his privacy to the autocrat's government.

The disclosure of the intimate images of the former magistrate, 55 years old, married and father of five children, coincides with his request to testify again before the judge of the National Court Santiago Pedraz who is investigating a complaint against Carmelo Ovono Obiang, another son of the president, for the kidnapping, torture and disappearance of four Equatoguinean opponents, two with Spanish nationality, one of whom died in January 2023 in unclarified circumstances. Juan Carlos Ondo is the main witness in the case that Pedraz tried unsuccessfully to hand over to the authorities of Equatorial Guinea and that the Criminal Chamber has ordered him to continue investigating and open an ordinary (summary) procedure.

The recording took place last August in a room at the Hyatt Regency Paris Étoile hotel, in the center of the French capital, where Ondo had met with a group of friends. The former president of the Supreme Court (2015-2018) has resided in Paris since he had to leave Equatorial Guinea in 2021 after 15 armed men, covered in balaclavas and in cars without license plates, showed up at his home in Malabo, the capital. Equatoguinean, and asked him to accompany them. He was rescued by the then ambassador of Spain, Guillermo López Mac-Lellan, and by those from France and the United States who showed solidarity with him by entering his home, hid him for weeks in the house of a diplomat and helped him escape from the country. Days before they had warned him that there was a plan to kill him.

Ondo has a doctorate in Law from the French University of Saint-Étienne, until his recent election as leader of the opposition in exile he has not been active in any party and is the son of Purificación Angue Ondo, ambassador of Equatorial Guinea in Spain from 2012 to 2020 His dismissal occurred when he criticized the death due to torture of a magistrate in a police station in Malabo.

Police warning

Juan Carlos Ondo directs his accusation to Teodorín Nguema Obiang, vice president, and affirms that he rented the room to the Cameroonian Pierre Ngo Matip, whom he also holds responsible. “It was an operation directed by Teodorín, I have no doubt. I have become the enemy to beat and they intend to discredit me and damage my image. The French police have warned me that this may be a preliminary step to physical removal. They are going to reinforce my protection. They have had these images in their possession since the middle of last August and spreading them now is no coincidence. “I am an important witness in the kidnapping and torture case that is being heard in Spain at the National Court and I have just asked the Western foreign ministries for support to ensure that there is an agreed political transition in our country,” he says in a telephone conversation. “The Government is accumulating weapons and new mercenaries, they have brought Serbs and traveled to Russia to be supported by the people of Wagner (the group of soldiers that supports the Russian army),” he adds.

Juan Carlos Ondo was recently spied on in Madrid during the presentation of Nexos-GE, the new platform of opposition in exile to the African dictator gathered at an event held on October 21 at the Friends of UNESCO Club, in the number 20 San Bernardo Street in Madrid. Several people with vaporizers and earpieces recorded those attending the event and confronted one of them, fleeing. Those affected filed a complaint. The highly political act was important because the five main groups fighting the autocrat announced their union under the presidency of the former president of the Supreme Court. On those same dates, Ondo's car was opened without forcing it and a robbery was simulated.

Spying on opposition leaders in exile is not new. The Government of Equatorial Guinea hired 15 private detective offices in Madrid to spy on members of the opposition in Madrid who a year later were kidnapped and tortured, according to a confidential report from the General Police Information Commissariat revealed by this newspaper. . The police investigation has identified Filemón Ndong Molo, current general director of Presidential Security, as the person who placed the order with a detective agency in Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid) and paid 35,000 euros in advance in 500-euro bills. The follow-ups began in May 2018 and lasted until October of that year.

The detectives carried out location, surveillance, monitoring and recording tasks on Martín Obiang Ondo Mbasogo, Bienvenido Ndong Ondo, and Rubén Clemente Nguema Engonga Avomo, residents of Madrid. The Police have proven that they filmed their meetings with opponents who traveled from other European cities and countries. A year after these follow-ups, the first two were tricked into traveling to South Sudan, kidnapped, transferred to a Guinean prison, tortured, tried and sentenced to 90 years in prison for an alleged coup d'état.

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