08/11/21
On 15 September 2021, Equatoguinean lawyer Gemma Jones was unjustifiably detained by the police, preventing her from intervening at the International Day of Democracy.
Equatoguinean lawyer Gemma Jones, who heads the law firm, JONES & SACRISTAN, founded in 2020 and based in the capital city of Malabo, specialises in business consultancy as well as human rights advocacy.
Gemma Jones has recently publicly denounced, through social networks, the lack of motivation and inadmissibility of a complaint filed by her office before the Court of Instruction No. 2 of the city of Malabo in a case involving the national electricity company (SEGESA) and some of its employees. The complaint referred to the dubious practices of SEGESA inspectors and the infringement of the property rights of Equatorial Guinean citizens by the company.
As a result of this complaint and her public statements, the lawyer’s office suffered an abrupt power cut without just cause.
On 15 September 2021, agents of the judicial brigade went to the office of JONES & SACRISTÁN to ask Gemma Jones to go to the Gendarmerie to make a statement without justifying the reason for the summons. Upon arrival at the judicial office, she was informed of an investigation into the leaking of the competitive examination for the B1 category of the state civil service organised on 12 September.
The lawyer made her telephone number available to investigators, evidencing her lack of involvement in the events under investigation. Despite this clarification, Gemma Jones was arbitrarily detained for more than three hours, preventing her from speaking at the International Day of Democracy event organised by the US Embassy in Malabo.
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Tagged: Equitorial Guinea, Observatoire international des avocats en danger
IAPL Monitoring Committee on Attacks on Lawyers 
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