Obiang's SA prisoner wins $2.7m claim

Seven years after Daniel Janse van Rensburg was jailed and tortured in Equatorial Guinea's Black Beach prison, the Western Cape High Court has ordered the country's Vice-President, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, to pay him more than $2.7m in damages, says a News24 report. 'This is a case that epitomises a sheer abuse of power and authority by the defendant (Obiang),' Acting Judge James Lekhuleni stated in his ruling on Friday. He added that Janse van Rensburg, who came close to death during the 423 days he was held without being charged in Black Beach, was 'fortunate to have survived the ordeal'. Lekhuleni's judgment paves the way for Janse van Rensburg to now recover the damages he is owed by Obiang, who the court found was directly responsible for his wrongful arrest and torture. Janse van Rensburg successfully attached Obiang's luxurious double-storey house in Clifton and mansion in Bishopscourt, in Cape Town, four years ago, as part of his efforts to sue the playboy Vice-President. Obiang is the son of Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang. Last year, a French court upheld a three-year suspended jail term against Obiang Junior and ordered that he pay a $33m fine for using public money to buy a six-floor home in Paris and luxury cars. He was the first African leader to be sentenced in France for unlawfully using public money to fund his own luxurious lifestyle. Lekhuleni slammed Obiang for failing to produce any evidence that proved or even suggested that Janse van Rensburg's arrest and detention was justified. Even in his response to the litigation launched against him in SA, the judge said Obiang 'appeared to be a law unto himself and that conduct cannot be tolerated'.