Amnesty calls for new trial, investigation

Amnesty International (AI) on Thursday called on authorities in Equatorial Guinea to conduct a new trial of 68 opposition leaders sentenced to prison terms of six to 20 years each, within a reasonable time or release the accused. AI also demanded an investigation into allegations by the defendants that they were tortured, adding that it had evidence that the torture continued during the trial. The sentences were unfair, heavy and passed on the sole basis of statements extracted under torture during incommunicado detention, the AI statement said. A court in the capital, Malabo, passed the sentences on Sunday, following the trial of 144 defendants since 23 May for reportedly plotting to topple President Teodoro Obiang Nguema. Some 76 defendants were freed. Those jailed for 20 and 14 years included Felipe Ondó Obiang and Guillermo Nguema Elá of the opposition Fuerza Democratica Republicana. Placido Miko, secretary general of the main opposition party, Convergencia para la Democracia Social, also received 14 years. "These sentences were passed after an unfair trial where no evidence was presented against any defendant, many of whom have been tortured to extract confessions from them," Amnesty said. Some defendants, AI said, had broken wrists after being tortured during their two months incommunicado detention. The torture, it added, included suspending detainees on an iron bar with hands and feet tied together. "Defendants who had retracted their confessions in court were subsequently tortured in prison apparently in reprisal. The prison conditions during the trial amounted to torture, as the defendants were held naked in overcrowded and small cells. None was allowed access to medical treatment and some were denied food brought by their families," Amnesty said. On Monday, the European Union expressed concern "about procedural irregularities during the trial, allegations of torture and physical abuse of the accused, and the weakness of elements of evidence that contrasts with the severity of the sentences". Another human rights NGO, the International Olof Palme Foundation, said the trial was "aimed at eliminating the opposition ahead of elections in February 2003". The media watchdog, Reporters sans frontieres, said the independent press were not allowed to freely and safely cover the trial. Equatorial Guinea in March cracked down on the opposition, accusing its members of breaching national security and insulting the head of state. The former United Nations special representative for Equatorial Guinea, Guastavo Gallon Giraldo in April said massive detentions of political opponents had occurred and that the human rights situation in the country was serious and deserved close monitoring. UN Commission on Human Rights, however terminated Giraldo’s mandate on 19 April, and resolved to "encourage the [Malabo] government to implement a national human rights action plan". A government official told the commission that "in recent years there had been no politically motivated disappearances or arrests, arbitrary detentions, political kidnappings, ethnic violence or discrimination against ethnic groups". Equatorial Guinea, an oil-rich West African country of 500,000 people, is made up mainly of two islands, Bioko and Annobon, and a stretch of mainland called Rio Muni. It is bordered by Cameroon, Gabon and the Gulf of Guinea. [Amnesty's report is available at http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/recent/AFR240092002!Open ]