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The two South African engineers – Frederic Potgieter (53) from George and Peter Huxham (55) from Langebaan – imprisoned in Equatorial Guinea are still there six months after their shocking arrest on Thursday, February 9.

They are appealing a drug smuggling conviction after police arrested the men at the Anda China Malabo hotel in Equatorial Guinea on a complaint believed to be related to a shipment of cocaine found on an international flight.

According to reports, the men have been sentenced to 12 years in prison. They were initially detained in the notorious Black Beach prison, the same prison where South African businessman, Daniel Janse van Rensburg, spent 400 days after he was illegally detained. They were then later moved to a political prison in Mongomo, in the east of the country.

The arrests were made days after the high court in Cape Town authorised the attachment of an R300m superyacht, Blue Shadow, sitting at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town and owned by Equatorial Guinea’s vice-president Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue. The yacht was being seized as part of a crackdown on the “Playboy” VP after a years-long legal battle involving Daniel, who was unlawfully arrested and sent to the central African country’s notorious Black Beach prison in 2013 and 2014, emerging “permanently physically impaired and psychologically shattered”.

“It has been traumatic for my wife and I to relive the nightmare of my time in Black Beach, knowing that these two families will be suffering as we did. Fortunately, their employers have appointed an internationally recognised legal firm to represent them, so our thoughts and prayers are with Peter, Frik and their families and we trust that their nightmare will end, and they will soon be reunited back home in South Africa,” Janse van Rensburg says.

George Herald reported that these newest South African prisoners sent an application for appeal to the Supreme Court in Equatorial Guinea, which was expected to be submitted on Thursday last week.

Image: Facebook

The men – who are employed by a Dutch oil and gas company- were in Equatorial Guinea for a five-week work stint, working on oil vessels in different locations. The drugs were apparently discovered on the plane the men arrived on from Singapore:

“Both men enjoy legal representation by a company that represents their employer, the Dutch oil company SBM (Single Buoy Mooring), in Equatorial Guinea. They are both engineers working on different platforms for the company. They got to know each other after the arrest. “

Last Friday, 30 June, the men were sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined an amount of R141 million each:

“We have no idea what’s going to happen going forward,” the Potgieter family’s spokesperson, Shaun Murphy, told George Herald.

“It is hell. There is no other way to describe it. The guys are innocent. The expectation was that they would be acquitted because as far as we understand there is no evidence for the allegations against them. Then suddenly they received a sentence of 12 years.”

The only contact that the families have with these two men is through doctors, who were able to see the men three times over the last five months:

“The sentence was just such a big shock for their legal representation,” said Murphy. “We are all very disappointed, because as we understand, it is outside the provisions of the normal criminal processes law for Equatorial Guinea. The guys are innocent.

Murphy added that Frik’s family is devastated, having last seen him alive in December last year, while Peter’s wife, Kathy, was hysterical when the family was told about the sentence during the daily feedback session by SBM.

Image: Facebook

There is something off about the reason for their arrest.

Initially, it was said that the men arrived in Equatorial Guinea via a flight from Singapore, but Frik and Peter landed in Equatorial Guinea on different flights on different days. Their flights were from OR Tambo via Ethiopia to Equatorial Guinea, and not via Singapore.

Later allegations were that the two men were involved in the use of and trafficking of drugs, and that drugs were found in their luggage at the hotel. “Their luggage was never searched and has been placed in safekeeping by SBM. There is even a combination lock, still intact, on one of the suitcases,” said Nigrini.

Janse van Rensburg says he is in contact with the detained men’s families, per the Benoni City Times:

“I have been in touch with the families, hoping that they have not read my book, which describes the horrors of my experiences being locked up there. As I am aware of how important it is to have contact with the outside world, I reached out to friends in Malabo to see if they could get in to visit the men and bring news back to their families.

Looks like you’re almost guaranteed a prison sentence when you strike a business deal in and with anyone from Equatorial Guinea.

[source:georgeherald&benonicitytimes]