Georgian and man from Langebaan detained in Black Beach prison

GEORGE NEWS - Two South African men, Frederic (Frik) Potgieter (53) from George and Peter Huxham (55) from Langebaan, were arrested at a hotel in the Equatorial Guinean capital Malabo last week, Thursday 9 February.

They are both being detained in the notorious Black Beach prison – the same prison Hoekwil local Daniel Janse van Rensburg spent more than 400 days after he was illegally detained.

Police arrested Huxham and Potgieter 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. The drugs were apparently discovered on the plane the men arrived with from Singapore on 4 January. Huxham and Potgieter are both employed by a Dutch oil and gas company.

According to the department of international relations and cooperation (Dirco), they are yet to be charged with a crime.

A family spokesperson of the Potgieter's told George Herald earlier today that they haven’t been able to get in touch with Potgieter yet, so they can’t confirm his well-being.

“He was on his way back home and spent the night in Equatorial Guinea to catch his flight on the day off. He was arrested after allegedly using drugs and transporting them. This could not possibly be true as he did not use drugs of any kind at all,” the spokesperson said.

SA embassy staff apparently visited the men at the police station last Saturday and said they did not complain about treatment, access and medication or food.

The two latest arrests came two days after the high court in Cape Town authorised the attachment of a R300m superyacht, Blue Shadow, owned by Equatorial Guinea's vice-president Teodorin Nguema Obiang.

The sheriff seized Blue Shadow at Cape Town harbour so the vessel could be sold at a public auction to honour a court order that says Obiang has to pay about R40m in damages to Janse van Rensburg.

Janse van Rensburg was arrested in September 2013 and released in 2015. His arrest came after he had set up an airline in Equatorial Guinea with the president's brother-in-law, Gabriel Mba Angabi, who withdrew from the venture at the last minute and demanded a financial refund.

The dispute led to Angabi phoning Obiang, who was the second vice-president of the country, in charge of defence and security at the time, as well as the political head in charge of the armed forces, police and prisons.

Within minutes after the phone call, an elite security force arrested Janse van Rensburg on trumped-up charges and threw him into Black Beach Prison. Since the seizure of Obiang’s superyacht, the Equatorial Guinean government has threatened to confiscate South African assets if the multimillion rand yacht is not released.

Janse van Rensburg said he is in contact with the detained men’s families, however the families have indicated that they do not wish to speak to the media at this stage.

“I have been in touch with the families of the men who have been detained, hoping that they had not read my book, which describes the horrors of my experiences being locked up there from 2013 to 2015. 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.

“It has been traumatic for Melanie 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 said.

Frederic (Frik) Potgieter.