The judge of the National Court Francisco de Jorge, replacing Judge Santiago Pedraz, agreed yesterday to issue European and international arrest warrants and imprisonment against Carmelo Ovono Obiang, Secretary of State of the Presidency of Equatorial Guinea and son of the president. Teodoro Obiang, and two other members of the Government, in the case in which they are being investigated for the disappearance of four opponents of that country's regime.
The investigating court 5 agreed to send testimony of the resolution with the arrest warrants to the State security forces and bodies, as well as to Sirene (alert system in the Schengen area) and Interpol.
In the order, Judge Francisco de Jorge orders the arrest and imprisonment of Obiang's son for the kidnapping and torture of four opponents, one of them a Spaniard who died in unclear circumstances, and also agrees to this instruction against the Minister of National Security, Nicolás Obama Nchama, and the Deputy Director General of Presidential Security, Isaac Nguema Ondo.
This decision comes after a few days ago the Criminal Court ordered Pedraz to issue international arrest warrants after upholding the appeal presented by the Movement for the Liberation of Equatorial Guinea-Third Republic (MLGE3R), which was joined by the families of the victims, against the resolution of the investigating judge Santiago Pedraz in which he denied this measure.
During the investigation, Pedraz has refused on several occasions to issue the international search and arrest warrant that the accusations demand, that is, the Prosecutor's Office, the MLGE3R and relatives of the victims.
Faced with the alleged lack of jurisdiction of Spain for the investigation of the facts alleged by Judge Pedraz, the magistrates corrected the instructor by understanding that at the time he adopted his decision “there was no conflict of jurisdiction that would imply the loss of jurisdiction.” ” by the central court of investigation number 5.
