Equatorial Guinea
Murderer allowed to go to prison

afrol.com, 5 November - The Equatorial Guinean Appeals Court this week gave a repeated order to throw the military officer and ex-Governor Francisco Mba Mendam into prison. He had previously been sentenced to 30 years of prison for the murder of the Equatorial Guinea ambassador to France, but enjoyed a quiet life at his mansion.

Julián Esono Abaga, Equatorial Guinean ambassador to France from 1981, was found murdered by Francisco Mba in 1984. Being found guilty to the murder of Esono Abaga, Mba was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment in 1999. But far from going to prison, Francisco Mba Mendam, with the help of powerful friends in the inner circles of power in Malabo and Bata, managed to stay in freedom. With the new court order from the Equatorial Guinean Appeals Court, Mba Mendam and two other convicted finally were detained.

Mba Mendam has been living with his family in a mansion in front of the military cartels centrally in Bata, the Río Muni mainland capital, reportedly since 8 October 1999. The opposition qualifies this as "a demonstration against the Judicial Power of Equatorial Guinea and an insult against the family and friends of the murder victim, Julián Esono Abaga."

Mba Mendam was a highly decorated officer, popularly known as "Efepule", and also held the office of Governor in the Micomiseng district, located at the Cameroonian border of Río Muni. Even if Mba Mendam lost his civil appointment in Micomiseng, he was let to keep his military rank even after the prison sentence and lead a normal life until his detention last week.

The family of the murder victim, friends from his natal village Mbam Esadon and the Guinean opposition took the case to the Equatorial Guinean Appeals Court and their claim to finally detain Mba was stood up to. Whether his actual imprisonment will be allowed, however, depends on if Mba Mendam will get continued support from his powerful friends.

According to a spokesman from the exiled Equatorial Guinean opposition party Unión de Demócratas Indpendientes (UDI), ambassador Esono was murdered in Paris "on direct orders from President Teodoro Obiang Nguema." Another UDI statement claims that "the assassination was executed in person by Francisco Mba Mendam Obiang," and adds that the body of the ambassador was found "without genital organs and totally crushed". It further explains that Governor Mba Mendam, "to hide his complicity to the crime, ordered the detention of Enrique Matogo, intimate friend of the victim."

The disclosure of the true perpetrator began with the involvement of the Bishop of Ebebiyin, brother of the detained and later imprisoned Enrique Matogo. The Bishop wrote a letter to the Government disclosing that, according to his investigations, Governor "Mba Mendam told the people of Mbam Esadon [natal village of Julián Esono] that they were to produce a report presenting Enrique as the perpetrator."

Thus, the processes against Francisco Mba Mendam slowly started and in 1999, he was found guilty of the murder. The fact that Mba Mendam has been allowed to keep his military rank and avoid imprisonment, gives credibility the opposition's statements that he has been protected by higher authorities, or even acted on orders from them. 

The power to overrule court orders in such cases in Equatorial Guinea is normally only attributed to the Presidency or the President's closest family. Nobody, however, expects that the last word has been spoken in the Mba Mendam case.

Sources: Based on UDI, La Diáspora, EFE 

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