A high-profile corruption case reached its climax in Equatorial Guinea as the Bioko Provincial Tribunal sentenced former senior government official, Baltasar Ebang Engonga, to eight years in prison for embezzlement.
Engonga, who previously headed the national financial investigation agency, was found guilty of diverting funds earmarked for official travel into personal use. The court also imposed a fine of $220,000 on him.
According to Hilario Mitogo, Press Director of the Supreme Court, Engonga stood trial alongside five other top officials accused of misappropriating hundreds of thousands of dollars in public funds.
The disgraced official gained global notoriety last year after explicit videos involving him and several women—some reported to be spouses of fellow officials—leaked online, sparking public outrage and petitions for accountability.
Engonga was detained in November while investigations into the embezzlement case were ongoing, a development that further fueled public pressure on the judiciary to act.
The sentencing marks a rare high-level conviction in the oil-rich Central African nation, where corruption allegations against government officials are common but often go unpunished.
