Two South African engineers have returned house after spending greater than two years in jail in Equatorial Guinea on what the UN has referred to as “arbitrary and unlawful” medicine fees.
Frik Potgieter and Peter Huxham, each of their mid-50s, had been arrested in February 2023 after medicine had been allegedly discovered of their baggage.
They had been sentenced to 12 years in jail and fined $5m (£4m) however have been given a presidential pardon after an extended marketing campaign by their households and the South African authorities.
Their arrest got here days after luxurious belongings belonging to Equatorial Guinea’s Vice-President Teodoro Nguema Obiang had been seized in South Africa.
A yacht and two Cape City villas belonging to Obiang, who can be the son of Equatorial Guinea’s president, had been impounded in execution of a court docket ruling.
“We’re overwhelmed with aid and pleasure. The final two years and 4 months have been unimaginably painful for each of our households,” in keeping with an announcement launched by the 2 males’s households.
They had been working for the Dutch oil and fuel firm SBM in Equatorial Guinea after they arrested the night time earlier than they had been as a consequence of return house after a five-week stint within the nation.
The households had referred to as for the help of the South African authorities in addition to that of the UK authorities, as Mr Huxham has twin nationality.
“South Africa expresses its honest gratitude to the Authorities of Equatorial Guinea for contemplating and finally granting this Presidential pardon, permitting Mr Huxham and Mr Potgieter to return house to their family members,” stated a submit on X by South African Overseas Minister Ronald Lamola.
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention final yr referred to as for the pair’s launch, saying their detention was illegal.
Their households say the pair had been arrested in retaliation for the seizure of the belongings belonging to Equatorial Guinea’s vice-president.
The BBC has contacted Equatorial Guinea for remark.
A South African official informed the BBC it was for the courts to determine the destiny of the yacht and villas, and the federal government could not intervene.
