Two SA engineers held on trumped-up charges in Equatorial Guinea: first family contact made after 7 months
3 October 2023
The family of Peter Huxham, one of the two South African engineers being held unlawfully in prison in Equatorial Guinea, spoke to Peter via cellphone for the first time since he was arrested on 9 February 2023. The call was arranged via the UK High Commission to Cameroon who secured an official visit to see Peter, on the basis that he holds both SA and UK citizenship.
Unfortunately, the family of Peter’s colleague, Frik Potgieter who is being held in the same cell at Mongomo Prison, was not permitted to speak to his family as Frik only has SA citizenship and the UK High Commission was only granted permission by Equatorial Guinea to meet with Peter.
Frik Potgieter and Peter Huxham are both highly experienced, professional engineers who were working for the Dutch company SBM Offshore in Equatorial Guinea when they were arrested at their hotel in Malabo on the evening of 9 February 2023 on trumped-up allegations of drug-related charges. They were wrongfully convicted and sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment, as well as being ordered to pay $5M USD (R93,7 million) each in damages with an additional $2.5M USD (R46,8 million) fine to be shared between them.
The matter is currently being appealed by Potgieter and Huxham’s lawyers.