In a resolution adopted Thursday with 518 votes in favor, 6 against and 19 abstentions, MEPs denounced the long-standing human rights violations in Equatorial Guinea and described the persecution of hundreds of political opponents, government critics and human rights defenders as “barbaric acts”.
They consider proven that four members of the Movement for the Liberation of Equatorial Guinea Third Republic (MLGE3R) – Julio Obama Mefuman and Feliciano Efa Mangue, both with dual Equatoguinean and Spanish nationality, and Martin Obiang Ondo Mbasogo and Bienvenido Ndong Ono, residents of Spain – were kidnapped in South Sudan in late 2019 and taken to Equatorial Guinea on Teodoro Obiang’s presidential plane.
After being sentenced to 60 years in prison for terrorism and preparing a coup, Obama Mefuman died in prison last month. Parliament calls for the repatriation of his body and the release of the three remaining MLGE3R members and urges Equatorial Guinea to cooperate fully with Spanish judicial authorities.
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The resolution deplores the “systematic and organized strategy of Obiang’s dictatorial regime of political persecution and repression of political opponents both within the country and abroad,” which includes arbitrary arrests, harassment, kidnappings, forced transfers, torture, assassinations and death sentences.
In addition to calling for the release of political prisoners, MEPs call on the Equatorial Guinean authorities to respect international human rights law, humane detention conditions, fair trials and access to families and lawyers for detainees.
The EU and its Member States should suspend all military, police and security cooperation with Equatorial Guinea and punish members of the regime who have committed human rights violations.
More information: European Parliament
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