Portuguese businessman Nuno Pimentel, who was held without charge in Equatorial Guinea for nearly a month, was released this Tuesday, subject to an identity and residence term and periodic submission to authorities, he told Lusa.
Nuno Filipe Medeiros Pimentel was taken to a hotel in the country’s capital, Malabo, last December and driven by three men – one of whom, Justino Nchama Ondo, general manager of the country’s Public Works and cousin of the president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo – to a private home, where he reported assault, then was taken to a police station in Luba, a small town about 50 kilometers from the kidnapping site, where he spent most of the time without charge was detained.
Nuno Pimentel was transferred from Luba last Thursday to a prison on the grounds of the Ministry of Security, known as ‘Guantánamo’, where he was asked to personally report his case to the responsible minister, Nicolás Obama Nchama, and to the general director of the national police, Miguel Ndong Obiang Omomono, and a dozen senior officers of the Ecuadorian police, he said.
Despite the report of the case to the Ecuadorian-Guinean authorities and the personal assurance of the Director General of the National Police, Miguel Ndong, that his case would have “developments” in the following days, Pimentel was detained and only released on the end of this Tuesday.
“I explained the whole thing, the torture, the kidnapping, everything they did to me, the beating, everything. I was illegally held in a police station in Luba. I also explained that the government owes me [350 milhões de francos cfa (cerca de 535 mil euros)]the money for the boat and various things that don’t pay me said enough”said Nuno Pimentel.
This Tuesday, the businessman was summoned to appear before a court in Malabo and was released, having applied the coercive measures of identity and length of stay and presentation to the court twice a week.
“Why do I have to appear in court twice a week, what crime have I committed? It was they who committed a crime against me. They tortured me, they kidnapped me, they stole my phone, they took a car stolen from my house, I done nothing”Pimentel complained to Lusa.
“The lawyer insists on being informed [sobre a justificação da medida de coação]nothing passes us by, nothing tells us”Pimentel added.
On the other hand, Nuno Pimentel’s wife, Reina Pimentel, an Ecuadorian-Guinean citizen, was arrested last Thursday and has not yet been released for alleged non-payment of a rental car.
“They took advantage and also detained my wife. For renting a car, when neither I nor they could raise money to pay because I was detained. She spent New Year in jail, you could say ‘kidnapped’ justifies the arrest, there is a complaint about the payment of part of a car rental. It is unbelievable what corruption is happening in the administration of this country”reported.
In the case of Nuno Pimentel, the Equatorial Guinean General Director of Public Works, Justino Nchama Ondo, nephew of the President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, and son of Armengol Ondo Nguema, the head of state’s younger brother, has been for many years involved the head of security and is considered the most influential man in the regime.
On December 9, Justino Nchama Ondo “kidnapped” the Portuguese businessman, with the support of two men, in a hotel in Malabo, according to the text of a complaint filed by Pimentel at the Court of First Instance and instructions from Luba last day 23, consulted by Lusa.
In that complaint, Pimentel reports that he was “tortured”, “seriously injured” and taken to Luba, where he was dropped off at the local police headquarters. The businessman presented medical evidence of the aggression to which he was subjected, proven by a doctor at Jorge Gori Hospital in Luba, as well as photographs of extensive bruises on his back and thighs, which Lusa also had access to.
In this complaint, Nuno Pimentel asked the court in Luba to “arrest and prosecute the alleged perpetrators of the crimes” described in the court order – Justino Nchama Ondo, Felipe Esono Owondo and Roberto Nve -, and also the commissioner in charge of the main police station Luba.
According to the International Association against Corruption (IAAC), the Portuguese businessman is being subjected to “torture” for “refusing to give in to requests for corruption and payment of ‘revolutionary taxes'” by senior echelons of the Ecuadorian-Guinean government.
The Paris-based anti-corruption non-governmental organization (NGO) is chaired by Joaquinito Maria Alogo de Obono, grandson of Ecuadorian President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
According to Alogo de Obono, a lawyer specializing in international law and professor at the University of Paris X, who denounced the case in statements to Lusa, Nuno Pimental is the target of “extortion” in a corruption trial “classic and well-known in Guinea Equatorial”.
Nuno Pimentel’s life in Equatorial Guinea began to get complicated, according to Teodoro Obiang’s grandson — who took the matter to several international institutions and diplomatic bodies — when he attempted to acquire a ship delivered for scrap by the Equatorial Guinea in late 2021. state Guinean.
After Nuno Pimentel paid the requested amount for the ship (about 534 thousand euros), the Minister of Transport, Rufino Ovono Ondo Engonga, called on “irregularities” in the company of the Portuguese businessman Tropikal Services, SL, and demanded another 150 million cfa francs (approximately 229,000 euros) as a condition of release of the ship.
Nuno Pimentel refused to pay and lodged a complaint with the country’s presidency, which, in a letter to his government member on January 27, urged him to “suspend the claim against Tropikal Services SL and pay an additional amount ‘after’ contract of 150 million cfa francs”, because it is “an illegal procedure and contrary to the legal regulations in force”.
The minister terminated the contract with Nuno Pimentel and sold the ship to a Nigerian investor, said the Portuguese businessman, who has since unsuccessfully claimed the return of the 350 million cfa francs deposited in December 2021 in the General Treasury.
The letter addressed to Teodoro Obiang “was the biggest mistake” of Nuno Pimentel, according to the president of the IAAC. Since then, the businessman has been beaten and detained several times, including in one of the most renowned prisons in the world, known as ‘Black Beach’, in Malabo.
Source: DN
