Togo ex-minister drowned?

2008-11-14 14:00

Lome - Former Togo government minister Atsutse Kokouvi Agbobli, an opposition leader, had been kidnapped before his body was found on a beach in August and probably died of drowning, his son said on Thursday.

Ayaovi Fabrice Agbobli said in a statement that a second autopsy found that his father, 67, had not died from a medicinal drug overdose, as authorities had concluded.

The UN's High Commission for Human Rights authorised an independent medical expert to carry out a new post-mortem after a request from a Togolese human rights group, Agbobli said.

"Contrary to the theory put forward by the authorities," his death "was not due to medicinal poisoning or trauma," Agbobli said. "The probable cause of death was drowning," he said.

The son said his father, who was found dead on a beach near Lome on August 15 a day after his disappearance wearing only shoes and socks, may have been drowned during the alleged kidnapping.

The second medical report said Agbobli had suffered from an "acute myrocardial infarction" but that "it is unlikely that this would have resulted in his death".

The younger Agbobli said his father had a history of heart problems.

Atsutse Kokouvi Agbobli was minister of communications and later minister responsible for parliamentary affairs under the regime of General Gnassingbe Eyadema, who died in February 2005.

He was also president of the opposition National Development Movement, headed the political affairs department of the Organisation of African Unity, now the African Union, and worked as a writer, journalist and historian.

- AFP