4 executed for E Guinea attack

2010-08-23 22:38

Libreville - Four military and government officials in oil-producing Equatorial Guinea have been executed for their role in a 2009 attack on the presidential palace, Amnesty International (AI) said on Monday.

The four were sentenced to death on Saturday and executed "with chilling speed" the same day, the London-based group said in a statement.

Equatorial Guinea's government spokesperson Jeronimo Osa Osa Ekoro, contacted by AFP from Libreville in Gabon, said a statement would be released later on Monday.

AI condemned the execution of the four men, all convicted of attempting to assassinate President Teodoro Obiang Nguema in 2009.

"Jose Abeso Nsue, Manuel Ndong Anseme, Alipio Ndong Asumu and Jacinto Micha Obiang were executed on 21 August immediately after being convicted by a military court in the country's capital Malabo," said the rights group.

"These men were convicted after an unfair trial, sentenced to death and executed with chilling speed without having the slightest opportunity to appeal their sentence," said Erwin van der Borght, Africa director at AI.

Torture

The four had been living as refugees in Benin for many years when they were "abducted" by Equatorial Guinean security forces in January 2010, Amnesty said.

The former military officers were secretly detained in Black Beach prison in Malabo, where they reportedly "confessed" to the attack on the presidential palace on February 17 2009, said AI.

AI received reports that the men had been tortured in detention, forcing them to "confess" to taking part in the alleged attack.

"Equatorial Guinea must put an end to the abductions, torture and executions it currently carries out under the pretence of justice," said van der Borght.

Abeso had reportedly asked to see his family when the sentence was passed but when his wife and son arrived at Black Beach prison an hour later he had already been executed, said AI.

Equatorial Guinea, Africa's third-biggest oil exporter, has a history of coups, the last successful one being when Obiang Nguema toppled and executed his uncle in 1979, establishing an iron-fisted regime.

- SAPA