He affirms that the resolution of the European Parliament “suggests his role as an instigator of terrorism” against our country”
23 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The authorities of Equatorial Guinea have “outright” rejected the “unfounded” accusations of the European Parliament, which last week condemned the political persecution in the African country, particularly after the death last January of the opponent with Spanish nationality Julio Obama Mefuman .
“The Equatorial Guinean Government expresses its most resounding rejection and repudiation of the unfounded accusations of the European Parliament of alleged violations of Human Rights in our country expressed in its unfortunate resolution”, said the Vice President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue.
Thus, it has denounced that “the European Parliament, far from condemning the terrorist acts that occurred in Equatorial Guinea in 2017 as a global threat, defends the two Spanish nationals involved in them, misrepresenting the reality of the facts”, before pointing out that this “suggests his role as instigator of terrorism against our country”.
“Our Government also expresses its categorical rejection of the colonial and paternalistic language used by the European Parliament, which cannot give us lessons in democracy by discrediting the democratic institutions of our country and its legitimate representatives”, it has settled through a series of messages published on his account on the social network Twitter.
The European Parliament demanded last week that the European Union (EU) take action on the matter and impose sanctions for violations of rights in the country, in a parliamentary resolution approved almost unanimously, with only six votes against and 19 abstentions.
The Equatorial Guinean Foreign Minister, Simeon Oyono Esono, indicated on January 17 that Obama Mefuman died “due to an illness” and stressed that he was sentenced after “a fair trial”, after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the European Union and Spanish Cooperation will summon the head of the Equatorial Guinean delegation in Madrid to ask him to clarify the circumstances in which his death occurred.
Obama Mefuman died in the Oveng Azem prison, where he was being held together with fellow Spaniard Feliciano Efa Mangue, according to his party, the Movement for the Liberation of Equatorial Guinea Third Republic (MLGE3R). His death took place less than two weeks after it was learned that the National Court is investigating three high-ranking government officials of Teodoro Obiang Nguema, one of them his son, in relation to the alleged kidnapping and subsequent torture of these two Spanish people.
Both were arrested along with two other people in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, on November 15, 2019 and later transferred to Equatorial Guinea on a presidential plane. Here, in addition to being tortured, they were sentenced to long prison terms, 90 years in the case of Efa Mangue and 70 in the case of Obama Mefuman, for their alleged participation in a coup attempt.
