National Post, Canada
April 14 2005

Dubiously convicted prisoners may starve: amnesty group

MADRID – At least 70 prisoners risk starving to death in a prison in
Equatorial Guinea, where rations have been cut from a daily cup of
rice to almost nothing, Amnesty International said yesterday. The
human rights group said those most at risk included six Armenians and
five South Africans convicted last year of plotting a coup in the
tiny, oil-rich West African country, in a trial Amnesty described as
“grossly unfair.”

“Unless immediate action is taken, many of those detained at Black
Beach prison will die,” said Kolawole Olaniyan, director of Amnesty’s
Africa program, in a statement. Amnesty said the Armenians and South
Africans jailed at Black Beach for their part in the plot had their
wrists and ankles chained together at all times, and all the
prisoners were confined to their cells 24 hours a day. Equatorial
Guinea, a former Spanish colony, said the allegations were untrue and
accused Amnesty of seeking to tarnish its image.