Black Beach was overthrown in a 1979 coup d'état. Black Beach holds a number of foreign prisoners sentenced for participating in a 2004 coup d'état attempt against the President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. These included Simon Mann, the alleged ringleader, until his presidential pardon on 2 November 2009 on humanitarian grounds, and more recently Ramón Esono Ebalé (released in March 2018). Black Beach Black Beach (), located on the island of Bioko, in the capital city of Malabo in Equatorial Guinea, is one of Africa's most notorious prisons. It has a reputation for systematically neglecting and brutalising inmates. Medical
Corruption in Equatorial Guinea of Spain filed a criminal complaint in that country against the government of Equatorial Guinea for money laundering, citing over $26 million in transfers of funds from Riggs Bank to Banco Santander in Madrid between 2000 and 2003. The complaint listed eleven people, including Obiang, his son Gabriel Nguema Lima, his daughter-in-law Virginia Esther Maye, his brother-in-law Teodoro Biyogo, Elena Mensa, Minister of Foreign Affairs Pastor Mincha, Mincha's wife, Magdalena Ayang, and former Minister of Mines Anastasio Ela. As of 2011, a Spanish court was investigating these charges of money laundering as well as the charge that the money had