Reuters AlertNet, UK
Nov 30 2004

Equatorial Guinea coup trial “grossly unfair”-Amnesty
30 Nov 2004 19:13:41 GMT

By Estelle Shirbon

MADRID, Nov 30 (Reuters) – Equatorial Guinea’s trial of 19 suspected
mercenaries accused of plotting a coup in the oil-rich African
country was “grossly unfair” and the court ignored allegations of
torture, Amnesty International said on Tuesday.

A court in the Equatorial Guinean capital Malabo last Friday
sentenced 11 foreigners it said were involved in an attempt to topple
President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo to jail terms ranging from 14
to 34 years.

Two Equatorial Guineans were sentenced to 16 months’ imprisonment.
Three other Equatorial Guineans and three South Africans were
acquitted.

“No evidence was presented in court to sustain the charges against
the accused other than their statements, which the defendants said
had been extracted under torture,” Amnesty said.

“However, defendants’ protestations to this effect were ignored by
the bench … No court can ignore allegations as serious as these,”
the human rights group said in a statement.

Authorities in Equatorial Guinea say the men on trial were an advance
party of mercenaries bent on killing Obiang and replacing him with
exiled opposition politician Severo Moto, who has denied any role in
the plot.

They say a web of foreign financiers hungry for a share of Equatorial
Guinea’s oil wealth backed the scheme.

The widely respected human rights group’s condemnation could
complicate any possible attempt by Equatorial Guinea to obtain the
extradition of the alleged financial backers of the plot.

They include Mark Thatcher, son of former British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher, who faces trial in South Africa on charges he
helped finance the scheme. Thatcher denies any role.

DEFENDANTS’ RIGHTS VIOLATED-AMNESTY

Amnesty said the rights of the eight South Africans and six Armenians
on trial had been violated from the moment of their arrest on March
8.

“All defendants were held incommunicado, handcuffed and shackled 24
hours a day,” it said. “They did not receive an adequate diet, and
only rarely received medical treatment for the many ailments that
afflicted them in prison.”

The state prosecutor told the court during the trial that all the
suspects’ rights had been respected.

Those convicted will remain in the same jail where they have been
held so far, Malabo’s infamous Black Beach prison.

Amnesty said a question mark remained over the fate of Gerhard Merz,
a German also arrested on March 8 who died in Black Beach nine days
later. Authorities said he was killed by cerebral malaria but two
defendants in the trial told the court he died as a result of
torture.

Amnesty said the men did not see their defence lawyers until two days
before the start of the trial.

It also said the statements presented in court were in Spanish — a
language the defendants did not understand — and that the English
translation provided to the South African suspects missed out or
distorted vital pieces of information.

“Neither the verdict not the sentences were translated, and the
defendants left the court with no knowledge of their fate.”

The foreign suspects appeared in court with their wrists and ankles
chained together at all times, which Amnesty said was “cruel,
degrading and inhumane treatment”.