Equatorial Guinea ex-official Baltasar Ebang Engonga sentenced to 8-Year in jail

Zuko Komisa

Image | Baltasar Ebang Engonga/ Facebook

A senior Equatorial Guinean official, Baltasar Ebang Engonga, has been sentenced to eight years in prison for embezzling public funds.
The conviction follows a separate scandal involving the official, who became notorious after explicit videos of him with other officials’ wives were leaked online.
The court found that Mr Engonga, the former head of the national financial investigation agency, misused hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel expenses.

Baltasar Ebang Engonga, a former senior official in Equatorial Guinea, has been sentenced to an eight-year prison term for embezzlement, a court in the country announced on Wednesday.

The provincial tribunal in Bioko found Mr Engonga, the former head of the national financial investigation agency, guilty of misappropriating professional travel expenses for his personal use.

According to a statement from the supreme court’s press director, Hilario Mitogo, the case also involved five other senior officials accused of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars in the oil-rich nation.

The conviction follows a separate scandal involving Mr Engonga, nicknamed “Bello,” who gained international notoriety last November after a series of explicit videos were leaked on social media while he was in detention.

The tapes, some reportedly filmed in his office at the finance ministry, depicted him in sexual encounters with the wives of other officials.