Juan Carlos Ondo, former president of the Supreme Court of Equatorial Guinea and main leader of the opposition to Teodoro Obiang in exile, was the victim of an espionage operation that culminated in the placement of a hidden camera in the room of a centrally located hotel in Paris, which he occupied in the company of a woman. The former Guinean judge's private images were distributed through the personal account on In January 2023, Ondo confessed to EL PAÍS during an interview in the French capital that he feared for his life. Now he has no hesitation in attributing the violation of his privacy to the autocrat's government.
The disclosure of the intimate images of the former judge, 55 years old, married and father of five children, coincides with his request to testify again before National Court Judge Santiago Pedraz, who is investigating a complaint against Carmelo Ovono Obiang, another son of the President for the kidnapping, torture and disappearance of four Equatoguinean opponents, two of them of Spanish nationality, one of whom died in January 2023 under unclear circumstances. Juan Carlos Ondo is the main witness in the case that Pedraz unsuccessfully tried to hand over to the Equatorial Guinea authorities and in which the Criminal Chamber has ordered him to continue the investigation and initiate an ordinary (sum) trial.
The recording took place last August in a room at the Hyatt Regency Paris Étoile hotel in the center of the French capital, where Ondo had met with a group of friends. The former president of the Supreme Court (2015-2018) has lived in Paris since he was forced to leave Equatorial Guinea in 2021 after 15 armed men, covered in balaclavas and in cars without license plates, showed up at his home in Malabo, the capital. Equatoguinean and asked him to accompany her. He was rescued by the then ambassador of Spain, Guillermo López Mac-Lellan, and by people from France and the United States who showed solidarity with him by entering his house, hiding him for weeks in a diplomat's house and helping him escape that Country. Days before, they had warned him that there was a plan to kill him.
Ondo has a doctorate in law from the French University of Saint-Étienne, was not active in any party until his recent election as opposition leader in exile and is the son of Purificación Angue Ondo, Ambassador of Equatorial Guinea to Spain 2012 to 2020. His dismissal came when he criticized the torture-related death of a judge at a police station in Malabo.
Police warning
Juan Carlos Ondo directs his accusation at Vice President Teodorín Nguema Obiang and asserts that he rented the room to Cameroonian Pierre Ngo Matip, whom he also holds responsible. “It was an operation led by Teodorín, I have no doubt about that. I have become an enemy to be defeated and they want to discredit me and tarnish my image. The French police warned me that this could be a first step towards physical removal. They will strengthen my protection. They have had these images since mid-August last year and it is no coincidence that they are now distributing them. “I am a key witness in the kidnapping and torture case being tried in Spain before the National Court of Justice and I have just asked for support from Western foreign ministries to ensure that there is an agreed political transition in our country,” says he in a phone call conversation. “The government is accumulating weapons and new mercenaries, it has brought Serbs with it and traveled to Russia so that the people of Wagner (the group of soldiers supporting the Russian army) can support them,” he adds.
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Juan Carlos Ondo was recently spied in Madrid during the presentation of Nexos-GE, the new platform of the opposition in exile against the African dictator, which took place at an event on October 21 at the Friends of UNESCO Club at number 20 San Bernardo Street in Madrid. Several people with vaporizers and earbuds recorded participants at the event and confronted one of them as he fled. Those affected filed a complaint. The highly political act was important because the five main groups fighting the autocrat announced their unification under the chairmanship of the former president of the Supreme Court. On the same days, Ondo's car was opened without violence and a robbery was simulated.
Spying on opposition leaders in exile is nothing new. The government of Equatorial Guinea hired 15 private detective agencies in Madrid to spy on opposition figures in Madrid who were kidnapped and tortured a year later, according to a confidential report from the General Commissioner for Police Information published by this newspaper. The police investigation revealed that Filemón Ndong Molo, the current director general of the Presidential Security Service, was the person who placed the order with a detective agency in Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid), paying 35,000 euros in advance in 500 euro bills. The follow-up examinations began in May 2018 and lasted until October of the same year.
Investigators carried out tracking, surveillance, surveillance and recording tasks on Martín Obiang Ondo Mbasogo, Bienvenido Ndong Ondo and Rubén Clemente Nguema Engonga Avomo, residents of Madrid. Police have proven that they filmed their meetings with opponents who traveled from other European cities and countries. A year after these follow-up investigations, the first two were tricked into traveling to South Sudan, kidnapped, taken to a Guinean prison, tortured, tried and sentenced to 90 years in prison for an alleged coup.
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