Vice-President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue has dismissed a European Parliament resolution that accuses Equatoguinean authorities of being to blame for the death of opposition leader Julio Obama Mefuman.
“The government of Equatorial Guinea, vehemently rejects and dismisses the unfounded accusations made by the European Parliament regarding the alleged human rights violations in our country, through its unfortunate resolution,” said Obiang Mangue, in a post on his Twitter account.
Obiang Mangue, who is also the son of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, accused the European Parliament in a number of posts of using a “colonial and paternalistic discourse” and of disparaging Equatoguinean institutions and its representatives.
The authorities accused Mr. Mefuman, a Spanish national and member of the opposition Movement for the Liberation of the Third Republic of Equatorial Guinea (MLGE3R), of plotting to overthrow the government.
The MLGE3R claims that Mr. Mefuman and three other dissidents were forcibly flown to Equatorial Guinea after being lured there under false pretenses in connection with an alleged coup plot. There, they were subjected to torture.
Simeon Oyono, the foreign minister of Equatorial Guinea, announced on January 16 that Mr. Mefuman had died from an illness he had been battling in a hospital in the eastern town of Mongomo in the Wele-Nzas province.
Author-Roberta Appiah
