Foreign News
Why massive sex tape leak could be a ploy for power in Equatorial Guinea
What the rest of the world sees as a sex tape scandal could in fact be the latest episode in the real-life drama over who will become Equatorial Guinea’s next president.
Over the past fortnight, dozens of videos – estimates range from 150 to more than 400 – have been leaked of a senior civil servant having sex in his office and elsewhere with different women. They have flooded social media, shocking and titillating people in the small central African country and beyond.
Many of the women filmed were wives and relatives of people close to the centre of power. It appears some were aware they were being filmed having sex with Baltasar Ebang Engonga, who is also known as “Bello” because of his good looks.
All this is hard to verify as Equatorial Guinea is a highly restricted society where a free press does not exist. But one theory is that the leaks were a way to discredit the man at the centre of the storm.
Mr Engonga is a nephew of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema and one of those thought to be hoping to replace him.
Obiang is the world’s longest-serving president having been in power since 1979. The 82-year-old has overseen an economic boom that has turned to bust as a result of the now-dwindling oil reserves.
There is a small, extremely wealthy elite, but many of the 1.7 million people in the country live in poverty.
Obiang’s administration is heavily criticised for its human rights record, including arbitrary killings and torture, according to a US government report.
It has also had its fair share of scandals – including the revelations about the lavish lifestyle of one of the president’s sons, now vice-president, who once owned a $275,000 (£210,000) crystal-encrusted glove worn by Michael Jackson.
Despite regular elections, there is no real opposition in Equatorial Guinea as activists have been jailed and exiled and those with designs on office are closely monitored.
Politics in the country is really about palace intrigue and this is where the scandal involving Mr Engonga fits in.
He was the head of the National Financial Investigation Agency, and worked on tackling crimes such as money laundering. But it turned out he himself was under investigation. He was arrested on 25 October accused of embezzling a huge sum of money from state coffers and depositing it in secret accounts in the Cayman Islands. He has not commented on the accusation.
Mr Engonga was then taken to the infamous Black Beach prison in the capital, Malabo, where it is alleged that opponents of the government are subjected to brutal treatment. His phones and computers were seized and a few days later the intimate videos started appearing online.
The first reference the BBC has found to them on Facebook is from 28 October on the page of Diario Rombe, a news site run by a journalist in exile in Spain, which said that “social networks exploded with the leaking of explicit images and videos”.
A post on X the following day referred to a “monumental scandal shaking the regime” as “pornographic videos flood social media”.
But they are believed to have originally appeared one-by-one a few days earlier on Telegram, on one of the platform’s channels known for publishing pornographic images.
They were then downloaded on to people’s phones and shared among WhatsApp groups in Equatorial Guinea, where they caused a storm.
Mr Engonga was quickly identified along with some of the women in the videos, including relatives of the president and wives to ministers and senior military officials.
The government was unable to ignore what was going on and on 30 October Vice-President Teodoro Obiang Mangue (once owner of the Michael Jackson glove) gave telecoms companies 24 hours to come up with ways to stop the spread of the clips.
“We cannot continue to watch families fall apart without taking any action, he wrote on X.
“In the meantime, the origin of these publications is being investigated to find the author or authors and make them answer for their actions.”
As the computer equipment was in the hands of the security forces, suspicion has fallen on someone there, who, perhaps, sought to trash Mr Engonga’s reputation ahead of a trial.
The police have called on women to come forward to open a case against Mr Engonga for the non-consensual sharing of intimate images. One has already announced that she is suing him.
What is not clear is why Mr Engonga made the recordings. But activists have put forward what could be other motives behind the explosive leak.
As well as being related to the president, Mr Engonga is the son of Baltasar Engonga Edjo’o, the head of the regional economic and monetary union, Cemac, and very influential in the country.
“What we are seeing is the end of an era, the end of the current president, and there is a succession [question] and this is the internal fighting we are seeing,” said Equatoguinean activist Nsang Christia Esimi Cruz, now living in London.
Speaking to the BBC Focus on Africa podcast, he alleged that Vice-President Obiang was trying to politically eliminate “anyone who could challenge his succession”.
The vice-president, along with his mother, are suspected to be pushing aside anyone who threatens his path to the presidency, including Gabriel Obiang Lima (another son of President Obiang from a different wife), who was oil minister for 10 years and then moved to a secondary government role.
Those in the elite are thought to know things about each other that they would rather was not made public, and videos have been used in the past to humiliate and discredit a political opponent.
There are also frequent accusations of coup plotting, which further fuels paranoia.
But Mr Cruz also alleges that the authorities want to use the scandal as an excuse to crack down on social media, which is how a lot of information about what is really going on in the country gets out.
In July, the authorities temporarily suspended the internet after protests broke out on the island of Annobón.
For him, the fact that a high-ranking official was having sex outside of marriage was not surprising as it was part of the decadent lifestyle of the country’s elite.
The vice-president, who himself has been convicted of corruption in France and has had lavish assets seized in various countries, wants to be seen as the man cracking down on graft and wrong-doing at home.
Last year, for example, he ordered the arrest of his half brother over allegations he sold a plane owned by the state airline.
But in this case, despite the vice-president’s efforts to stop the spread of the clips, they continue to be viewed.
This week, he tried to appear more resolute calling for the installation of CCTV cameras in government offices “to combat indecent and illicit acts”, the official news agency reported.
Saying that the scandal had “denigrated the image of the country” he ordered that any officials found engaging in sex acts at work would be suspended as this was a “flagrant violation of the code of conduct”.
He was not wrong that the story has attracted a lot of outside interest.
Judging by Google’s data, search enquiries that include the country’s name have shot up since the beginning of this week.
On Monday, on X, “Equatorial Guinea” was one of the top trending terms in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa – surpassing at times interest in the US election.
This has left some activists who have been trying to tell the world about what is really going on in the country frustrated.
“Equatorial Guinea has much bigger problems than this sex scandal,” said Mr Cruz, who works for a rights organisation called GE Nuestra.
“This sex scandal for us is just a symptom of the illness, it’s not the illness itself. It just shows how corrupt the system is.”
[BBC]
A Kenyan court has convicted a photographer for the murder of LGBT activist Edwin Kiprotich Kipruto, popularly known as Edwin Chiloba, whose body was found dumped in a metal box nearly two years ago.
The court in the western city of Eldoret ruled that the prosecution had proved that Jacktone Odhiambo, who was living with Chiloba, had killed him. Chiloba’s body had been found dumped on the roadside in Eldoret, where he was a university student.
The murder sparked global condemnation, with human rights groups saying it was because of his sexuality.
Kenya is a relatively conservative society and gay sex is illegal, punishable by up to 14 years in prison, although it is not clear whether there has been any convictions.
However the Supreme Court last year affirmed a ruling allowing LGBT people the right to associate and register a rights organisation.
Judge Reuben Nyakundi ruled that the evidence, which included DNA tests, had linked the accused to the murder. The evidence also indicated that the suspect had sexually assaulted Chiloba before killing him.
The judge said the prosecution had proved the suspect’s deliberate intention and deep hatred against the deceased.
“He was a young man whom you strangled until he lost his life at the peak of his life. You were close friends, and you should have protected his life,” said the judge.
The court did not make any finding about the motive for the killing.
Chiloba’s body was found in early January last year with socks stuffed into his mouth and a piece of denim from jeans tied around his face. A post-mortem indicated that he had died from lack of oxygen, caused by smothering.
Odhiambo, who was believed to have been in a relationship with the deceased, was accused of killing Chiloba between 31 December 2022 and 3 January 2023. He had denied the charges.
On Wednesday, the prosecution said in a post on X that it had presented evidence from 23 witnesses “detailing the events leading to Chiloba’s death and proving beyond reasonable doubt that Odhiambo intentionally caused the unlawful death”.
The National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission said the “landmark ruling” was a “significant step toward justice for Edwin and all LGBTQ residents of Kenya, Africa and beyond”.
Odhiambo is due to be sentenced on 16 December.
[BBC]
Police in South Korea have opened an investigation into President Yoon Suk-yeol for alleged “treason” related to his brief declaration of martial law this week, according to reports.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported on Thursday that a team at the National Police Agency has been assigned to investigate the president, while allegations of treason have also been made against the country’s recently resigned Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, as well as army chief of staff General Park An-su and Interior Minister Lee Sang-min.
The four have been accused “of treason and other related charges for their roles in the declaration and subsequent lifting of martial law on Tuesday” night, the news agency reports.
One complaint for treason was filed against the president by a minor opposition party and a second was submitted by a group of 59 activists, Yonhap said.
Citing non-specific threats from “antistate forces” and obstructionist political opponents, President Yoon imposed martial law for about six hours late on Tuesday night before reversing course after parliament held a vote to oppose the move and people took to the streets in protest.
Yoon also faces an impeachment vote in parliament on Saturday for his declaration of martial law.
The country’s courts and a government department that investigates corruption among high-ranking officials are also considering launching their own probes of the events, which resulted in armed South Korean troops storming the National Assembly compound onboard helicopters and smashing windows and doors to enter the building.
In a separate report, Yonhap said a prosecutor at the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office had issued a travel ban on South Korea’s former Defense Minister Kim, who resigned early on Thursday.
Kim, who is reported to have suggested the imposition of martial law to the president, is being investigated for “sedition” over his role in the incident, Yonhap said.
Yonhap also reports that “the prosecution is known to have banned other defendants from leaving the country besides” the former defence minister.
Earlier, Yoon’s office said the president had accepted the defence minister’s resignation and he would be replaced by South Korea’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Choi Byung-hyuk, a former four-star army general.
Legislators from the opposition Democratic Party plan to seek a vote in parliament to impeach Yoon on Saturday evening, a party spokesperson told reporters.
“The Yoon Suk-yeol regime’s declaration of emergency martial law caused great confusion and fear among our people,” Democratic Party MP Kim Seung-won told the National Assembly.
Yoon’s governing People Power Party is divided over the crisis but has said it would oppose the impeachment of the president, who has two years left in his five-year term.
The opposition Democratic Party needs at least eight of the 108 People Power Party’s legislators to back the impeachment bill for it to pass with a two-thirds majority of the 300-seat parliament.
If the impeachment bill passes, South Korea’s Constitutional Court will then decide whether to uphold the motion – a process that could take up to 180 days. If Yoon were to be suspended from exercising power, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo would fill in as leader.
If Yoon resigns or is removed from office, a new election would be held within 60 days.
Yoon has been embraced by leaders in the West as a partner in the US-led effort to unify democracies against growing authoritarianism in China, Russia and elsewhere.
But he had caused unease among South Koreans by branding his critics as “communist totalitarian and antistate forces”.
In November, he denied wrongdoing in response to influence-peddling allegations against him and his wife and he has taken a hard line against labour unions.
[Aljazeera]
Vietnamese property tycoon Truong My Lan is in a race for her life.
On Tuesday, the 68-year-old will hear the verdict in her appeal against the death sentence handed down on her in April for masterminding the world’s biggest bank fraud.
It was a rare and shocking verdict – she is one of very few women in Vietnam to be sentenced to death for a white collar crime.
The court found she had secretly controlled Saigon Commercial Bank, the country’s fifth biggest lender, and taken out loans and cash over more than 10 years through a web of shell companies, amounting to a total of $44 billion (£34.5 billion).
Of that prosecutors say $27 billion was misappropriated, and $12 billion was judged to have been embezzled, the most serious financial crime for which she was sentenced to death.
However, the law in Vietnam states that if she can pay back 75% of what she took, her sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment.
During her trial in April Truong My Lan, who had been chairwoman of the real estate firm, Van Thinh Phat Group, was sometimes defiant. But in the recent hearings for her appeal against the sentence she has been more contrite.
She has said she was embarrassed to have been such a drain on the state, and that her only thought was to pay back what she had taken.
Born into a Sino-Vietnamese family in Ho Chi Minh City, Truong My Lan started as a market stall vendor, selling cosmetics with her mother. She began buying land and property after the Communist Party introduced economic reform in 1986. By the 1990s, she owned a large portfolio of hotels and restaurants.
When she was convicted and sentenced in April, she was the chairwoman of a prominent real estate firm, Van Thinh Phat Group. It was a dramatic moment in the “Blazing Furnaces” anti-corruption campaign led by then-Communist Party Secretary-General, Nguyen Phu Trong.
All of the remaining 85 defendants were convicted. Four were sentenced to life in jail, while the rest were given prison terms ranging from 20 years to three years suspended. Truong My Lan’s husband and niece received jail terms of nine and 17 years respectively.
The State Bank of Vietnam is believed to have spent many billions of dollars recapitalising Saigon Commercial Bank to prevent a wider banking panic. The prosecutors argued that her crimes were “huge and without precedent” and did not justify leniency.
Truong My Lan’s lawyers say she is working as fast as she can to find the $9 billion needed. But cashing in her assets is proving difficult.
Some are luxury properties in the Vietnamese capital, Ho Chi Minh City, which could, in theory, be sold quite quickly. Others are in the form of shares or stakes in other businesses or property projects.
In all the state has identified more than a thousand different assets linked to the fraud. These have been frozen by the authorities for now. The BBC understands the tycoon has also reached out to friends to raise loans for her to help reach the target.
Her lawyers are arguing for leniency from the judges on financial grounds. They say that while she is under sentence of death it will be hard for her to negotiate the best price for selling her assets and investments, and so harder for her to raise $9 billion.
She can do much better if under a life sentence instead, they say. “The total value of her holdings actually exceeds the required compensation amount,” lawyer Nguyen Huy Thiep told the BBC.
“However, these require time and effort to sell, as many of the assets are real estate and take time to liquidate. Truong My Lan hopes the court can create the most favourable conditions for her to continue making compensation.”
Few expect the judges to be moved by these arguments. If, as expected, they reject her appeal, Truong My Lan will in effect be in a race with the executioner to raise the funds she needs.
Vietnam treats the death penalty as a state secret. The government does not publish how many people are on death row, though human rights groups say there are more than 1,000 and that Vietnam is one of the world’s biggest executioners.
Typically there are long delays, often many years before sentences are carried out, although prisoners are given very little notice. If Truong My Lan can recover the $9 billion before that happens, her life will most likely be spared.
[BBC]
Refrain from reporting false information that could harm national harmony – President
McSweeney, Labuschagne blunt India after Starc sizzles on Australia’s day
Verreynne’s brisk 105* gives South Africa 358; Sri Lanka openers steady in pursuit
-
Editorial6 days agoGreed for diplomatic appointments
-
News5 days agoAKD gladdens Ranil’s heart
-
Business5 days agoCentral Bank aware of upside and downside risks to its inflation projections
-
Business6 days agoDialog sets new standards in AI-driven creativity
-
News5 days agoSJB questions NPP over MPs’ perks and privileges
-
News7 days agoFive prominent politicians yet to provide statements in substandard medicine case
-
Features6 days agoCompensating a ‘parlour’ owner in Cambodia
-
Features4 days agoInside the ancient Indian ritual where humans become gods