by Nurat Uthman
Equatorial Guinea on Friday issued an international arrest warrant for a former Supreme Court president accused of plotting to destabilize the central African nation, state television announced.
The warrant calls for Juan Carlos Ondo Angue, who fled to Europe in 2020, to be arrested and returned to Malabo where he is wanted over a “plan to destabilize the country,” prosecutor general Anatolio Nzang Nguema told TVGE.
The prosecutor said Ondo Angue was believed to live “between Spain and France” and faced a long list of charges including corruption, fraud, money-laundering, abuse of power and influence trafficking.
Malabo had alleged in January that he was involved in the plot after the government seized videos showing a discussion between the former judge and a young woman, after sexual intercourse.
The videos were posted on the official government and TVGE websites.
In one of them, Ondo Angue admits to leading the destabilization scheme as he relates the details to his companion, according to the government.
He also says “certain Western countries had suggested to prepare a political project to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea and to take power,” the government added.
Ondo Angue was said to have also told the woman he was preparing to visit the United States to “forge alliances and that the US State Department had obtained financing for the scheme.”
Ondo Angue fled the country four years ago after soldiers tried to arrest him at his home in Malabo during investigations into an attempted coup in December 2017.
Malabo accused the French, Spanish and US ambassadors, who had gone to the supreme court president’s home on the evening of the attempted arrest, of helping him escape and interfering in domestic matters.
President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has ruled oil-rich Equatorial Guinea with an iron fist since taking power in a 1979 coup, making him the world’s longest-serving president.
