Spanish court plans arrest warrant for E’Guinea president’s son over abduction, torture

Spain’s High Court has accepted an appeal by members of Equatorial Guinea’s opposition and has ordered a lower court to issue arrest warrants for the son of the country’s president, Teodoro Obiang, and two other officials.

Carmelo Ovono Obiang, son of President Teodoro Obiang, and two other senior officials were accused of abducting four members of the Spain-based opposition group, the Movement for the Liberation of Equatorial Guinea Third Republic (MLGE3R), while they were on a trip to South Sudan in 2019.

They are accused of torturing and kidnapping four members of an opposition group while they were in South Sudan in 2019.

State sanctioned abduction is not strange in Africa.

Nigeria, referred to as continental giant recently had its court condemn actions of former President Mohammed Buhari after he approved overseas abduction of a separatist leader, Nnamdi Kanu, from Kenya for trial in the country.

Same Buhari, as military head of state attempted to abduct Umaru Dikko, a Nigerian politician on exile in the UK, creating international uproar.

In the Equatorial Guinea case, the victims were allegedly sent to Equatorial Guinea on a government plane and subjected to torture, with one of them dying in prison there.

The court found compelling evidence of kidnapping and torture based on victims’ testimonies and statements from witnesses.

The Equatorial Guinea government has denied the allegations.

President Obiang, who has been in power for 44 years, and the other officials were called to testify by the Spanish High Court judge but did not appear.

The High Court has now ordered arrest warrants for them as they have ignored the court’s requests to appear.

The case was initially closed by the judge, citing an ongoing investigation by Equatorial Guinea’s Supreme Court of Justice, but an appeal on that decision is pending.

Rights groups have accused Obiang of human rights abuses, corruption, and unfair elections, which he denies.

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