E Guinea opposition slams executions
2010-09-02 22:32
Madrid - Equatorial Guinea's opposition in exile on Thursday expressed its "revulsion" at the execution of four men implicated in a 2009 attack on the presidential palace in the capital Malabo.
"We want to show our strong revulsion" over these executions, the UDDS opposition party said in a statement read in Madrid by its secretary general, Aquilino Nguema.
Nguema also alleged that agents of Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema had kidnapped the four men in January while they were living in exile in the west African state of Benin.
Amnesty International (AI) said on Monday that the four military and government officials in the oil-producing west African country had been executed for their role in a bid to assassinate the president in 2009.
Executed immediately
According to Amnesty, "Jose Abeso Nsue, Manuel Ndong Anseme, Alipio Ndong Asumu and Jacinto Micha Obiang were executed on August 21 immediately after being convicted by a military court in the country's capital, Malabo."
While acknowledging the death sentences against the four accused, the authorities in Malabo have neither confirmed nor denied that the executions were carried out.
The opposition in exile charged on Thursday that "the trial was carried out without the minimum guarantees" and they "were executed immediately" after their sentences were handed down and without the right to appeal.
Nguema also accused Spain, the former colonial power in the country, of inaction over the executions.
"I don't know if Spain is in favour of real and effective democracy in Equatorial Guinea," he told a news conference.
In February last year a group of armed men allegedly came by sea to attack the presidential palace in Malabo, intending to kill president Obiang Nguema and carry out a coup.
Malabo initially alleged the gunmen were members of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), a Nigerian militant group, which denied any involvement.
Authorities later accused Faustino Ondo Ebang, former leader of the opposition Popular Union party and living in exile in Spain since 2007, of being behind the attack.
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