Santiago Pedraz, the judge of the National Court investigating one of the sons of the president of Equatorial Guinea Teodoro Obiang Nguema for kidnapping and torture of four opponents, has refused to extend to Interpol the evidence obtained during the three years of judicial investigation, evidence that this organization claims to process the international arrest warrants (OID) issued by its court for terrorism crimes.
Interpol, an organization that brings together 196 countries, has sent the magistrate a request for more information, to which EL PAÍS has had access, asking him to expand the information on this case before November 30 “to avoid that his record be deleted.” The police agency offered the magistrate to request a moratorium on the deadline for sending the information, but the judge’s response, on November 6, the day after receiving the request, has been a brief ruling without any data.
“The role judged by Carmelo Ovono Obiang [hijo del dictador y director de Seguridad Exterior]Nicolás Obama Nchama, Minister of the Interior, and Isaac Nguema Ondo, General Director of Security of the Presidency, is what is included in the corresponding OID issued,” says their response. That is to say, he neither asked for an extension of the period offered to him, nor expanded the information required even at the risk that the three orders, now temporarily suspended, will not be issued.
Numerous tests
The case has numerous evidence and police reports that directly implicate the three investigated, including the testimonies of those kidnapped and tortured in a prison in Equatorial Guinea. One of them, the Spanish Equatorial Guinean Julio Obama, died in circumstances that have not been clarified. They all resided in Madrid and traveled deceived in 2019 to Juba (capital of South Sudan) where, after being arrested, they were taken on Teodoro Obiang’s presidential plane to the former Spanish colony.
The Interpol note indicates that the OIDs were processed on February 28, but that two days later the General Secretariat of that organization received a request for more information to verify its compliance with the Statute of this organization. The rules of Interpol, based in Lyon (France), establish this type of checks to avoid cases of political persecution.
The police organization highlights that they have verified that the orders affect “three individuals who hold high-ranking official positions in the current Government of Equatorial Guinea” and requests more information about their relationship with the events investigated. “Could you provide us with additional information about the role judged individually by each subject in the alleged commission of the facts and include details about the specific activities that they are accused of?” they ask the judge. The orders issued by the Court indicate the three investigated for crimes of kidnapping for terrorist purposes, illegal detentions, torture and against moral integrity, forced disappearance of people and against humanity.
The Interpol letter refers to the deadline of November 30, pending a response with the required extension, and adds that “in the meantime, the request (issued by the court) will not be seen in the system and the information It will not be made available to member countries.” Also, he asks the judge about the whereabouts of the three uninvestigated people, to which Pedraz responds that it is unknown.
Rebellion
The representation of the victims’ relatives has appealed the magistrate’s decision in reform and assures that the attitude of the investigating judge will lead to the filing of the arrest warrants requested by the Criminal Chamber, as well as Spain being questioned before Interpol for lack of of collaboration. The complainants argue that the information transferred to Interpol in the OID is “very meager and limited to the point that the evidence that exists in the case against those investigated is not highlighted, not even the fact that they did not appear voluntarily to testify when “It provided them with a video conference in their homes.” Since then they have been in rebellion and fugitives from Spanish Justice. Pedraz has rejected this appeal in an order in which he points out that “evidence is not required nor is a story as extensive as the appellant claims.”
The judge refused on three occasions to issue to Interpol the search and arrest warrant requested by prosecutor Vicente González Mota and the victims’ relatives. He only did so last February, forced by the three judges of the Criminal Chamber who heard the appeal presented by the plaintiffs’ lawyer. The order bears the signature of Francisco de Jorge, the substitute judge, because that week Pedraz was absent on leave. Jorge also decreed prison for the autocrat’s son.
The order of the Criminal Court highlighted that the three investigated are in absentia despite having been given the possibility of testifying by videoconference. Previously, they had managed to avoid their statement, alleging “public commitments” that prevented them from traveling to Spain. Regarding the absence of evidence against Obiang’s son, the Court concluded that the case has provided sufficient data for more than two years “that points to his possible involvement” in the events.
Pedraz’s resistance to ordering the international detention of the dictator’s son has been the culmination of an investigation plagued by decisions that legal media describe as “surprising” and continuous setbacks by the Criminal Chamber that has heard all the appeals presented by the complainants, to whom the prosecution has always adhered.
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