A Spanish court said Tuesday it had closed a probe into three people close to Equatorial Guinea’s veteran president, including one of his sons, on suspicion of kidnapping and torturing opponents.
Campaign groups have long accused President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo’s government of arbitrary detentions and torture during his four decades in power in Spain’s former colony in central Africa.
The Spanish High Court in January 2023 opened a probe into three men suspected of having kidnapped and tortured four dissidents who oppose Obiang’s government and were arrested in South Sudan in 2019 and flown to Equatorial Guinea.
The investigation targeted one of Obiang’s sons, Carmelo Ovono Obiang, his security director, Isaac Nguema Endo and Security Minister Nicolas Obama Nchama.
The court, which handles major criminal cases, opened its probe after receiving a complaint from relatives of the victims.
But High Court judge Santiago Pedraz, who was leading the investigation, has decided to cede the investigation to Equatorial Guinea, which had requested “jurisdiction to investigate the alleged abduction and disappearance” in 2019 of four members of the opposition MLGE3R movement, the court said in a statement.
The MLGE3R group’s name stands for the Movement for the Liberation of the Third Republic of Equatorial Guinea and is based in Spain, from which the central African state declared independence in 1968.
Two of the dissidents who were kidnapped were Spanish nationals, while the other two are nationals of Equatorial Guinea who lived in Spain.
The judge justified his decision on the grounds that there was “no element to conclude… that acts were committed in Spain”. The opponents “were kidnapped in South Sudan and brought to Equatorial Guinea,” he added.
Under Spanish law, courts sit in judgement on cases and can launch investigations into alleged crimes and refer the case for trial if there is enough evidence.
One of the dissidents, Julio Obama Mefuman, who had Spanish nationality, died at a prison in the eastern city of Mongomo, according to his opposition MLGE3R movement.
But the government of Equatorial Guinea said he had died at a hospital from “a disease which he suffered from”.
Equatorial Guinea’s vice president, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue who is another son of Obiang, accused Spain of interference after the High Court opened its probe.
Aged 81, Obiang has ruled oil-rich Equatorial Guinea with an iron fist since taking power in a coup in 1979, 11 years after independence from Spain, making him the world’s longest-serving president.
