The president of Equatorial Guinea announced Saturday that he had removed the country’s top judge from office after he admitted taking bribes from a commercial firm convicted in a massive health scandal.
Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has ruled the Central African oil state for nearly 43 years, removed David Nguema Obiang Eyang, president of the Supreme Court of Justice since 2018, “as he assumes responsibility for the irregularities committed in the exercise of his high office,” according to a presidential decree read out on state radio and television TVGE.
The magistrate “acknowledged having received a bribe of 100 million CFA francs (about 153,000 euros) from Comercial Santy,” tweeted Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, the all-powerful vice-president and son of the head of state, to whom he is presented as the “dauphin.
Neither the decree nor the tweet specifies the magistrate’s judicial fate, and the authorities, whoever they may be, never respond to direct requests from journalists, reserving official information for the state media.