Spanish court docket to order arrest of Equatorial Guinea chief’s son By Reuters

MADRID (Reuters) – Spain’s Excessive Courtroom has accepted an enchantment by members of Equatorial Guinea’s opposition and ordered a decrease court docket to concern arrest warrants for the son of the nation’s president and two different officers over allegations of torture and kidnapping.

Carmelo Ovono Obiang, son of President Teodoro Obiang, and two different senior officers had been accused of abducting 4 members of the Spain-based opposition group, the Motion for the Liberation of Equatorial Guinea Third Republic (MLGE3R), whereas they had been on a visit to South Sudan in 2019.

In a criticism lodged with Spain’s Excessive Courtroom in 2020, the MLGE3R alleged that the 4 – two of whom had been Spanish residents – had been despatched to Equatorial Guinea, a former Spanish colony, on a authorities aircraft and tortured, a court docket doc confirmed.

One in every of them, Spanish citizen Julio Obama, died final 12 months in jail in Equatorial Guinea.

A police report seen by Reuters says victims’ testimonies and the statements of protected witnesses current “compelling proof” of kidnapping and torture.

A spokesperson for the Equatorial Guinea authorities didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. The federal government has beforehand rejected the allegations as false.

President Obiang has dominated the small West African nation for 44 years and is the world’s longest-serving president.

Final 12 months, Spanish Excessive Courtroom decide Santiago Pedraz, charged with investigating the case, known as Obiang and the opposite two officers to testify however they didn’t seem.

The Prison Chamber of the Excessive Courtroom, the judicial physique above Pedraz, has now ordered him to concern arrest warrants, a doc dated on Feb. 19 confirmed.

“The defendants are in revolt, having ignored the requests made by the Justice of the Peace to look in court docket to offer proof as investigated individuals, regardless of having been given the chance to testify by video convention,” the court docket stated in an announcement on Thursday.

In January, Choose Pedraz determined to shut the case, saying Equatorial Guinea’s Supreme Courtroom of Justice was conducting its personal investigation. An enchantment on that call continues to be pending.

Rights teams accuse Obiang of a tenure marked by torture of political opponents, sham elections and corruption. He denies such prices.