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The main opposition party of Equatorial Guinea said Thursday that it hoped the early release of its imprisoned members in the aftermath of the announcement by authoritarian President Teodoro Obiang Nguema of the same day. a "total amnesty" for all political prisoners.
Gabriel Nse Obiang, leader of the Citizens Party for Innovation (CI) banned, said: "We hope that our political prisoners will be released tomorrow or Saturday."
Liberation should not be "limited" to CI members but applies to all Obiang. Obiang, 76, has ruled the West African state since 1979, a widely criticized mandate for corruption, human rights abuses and abuse of the country's oil wealth.
On Wednesday, he issued a decree. granting "a full amnesty to all citizens condemned by the courts", an approach that is part of a so-called process of national dialogue.
The amnesty "will allow broad participation of all political actors", including According to the decree
all participants were guaranteed "freedom" and "security"
.
"The president's decision to release jailed prisoners for their political activities and opposition figures must be a concrete first step towards their true freedom," he said.
"In 2014, a similar announcement was made by the president but not all political prisoners were released."
A Western diplomat was lashing out, saying that the "ad" was a con game and everyone knows it. " "For a real dialogue … there must be free elections," said the diplomat.
The IC was banned on February 26. Twenty-one of its members, including the only party MP, were later sentenced to 30 years for "sedition, public disorder, attacks on authority and grievous bodily harm."
Dozens of his followers were tortured.
The crackdown on the party was allegedly linked to clashes that took place before the parliamentary elections last November, but it followed the latest in a series of attempted coups d'etat against Obiang
. Obiang made a speech broadcast on national television stating that a "dialogue and political interaction" would take place "to preserve peace and development".
The "dialogue", scheduled for July 16 and 21, is the sixth of its 38 years in power
. held in 2014 and five opposition parties were legalized after that, including the IC.
The main opposition party of the time, the Convergence for Social Democracy (CPDS), boycotted the talks.
On Tuesday, five opposition parties declared their readiness to participate in the dialogue provided it took place "outside Equatorial Guinea". … or in Equatorial Guinea, but with the support, help, protection and security of the international community. "
The CPDS stated that the announcement was a" positive "development, adding that political prisoners had been deprived of their fundamental rights.In his speech to AFP on Thursday, the leader of CI Nse Obiang said that he attached "a lot of value" to the president's amnesty.Off, but that it must be "authentic … (and not) a trap."
And the party should be allowed again, he said.
"In that case, we would be ready to take He took part in the dialogue," he said.
Obiang took power in the # 39, former Spanish colony by ousting his uncle, the first president after independence, Francisco Macias Nguema, who was then shot by a firing squad.
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Since then, he has seen at least half a dozen badbadinations or coup d'état these attempts, the last of which would have involved a group of men from Chad, the RCA and Sudan
earned him a fifth term of seven years in 2016 with nearly 94% of the vote. The general elections last November saw his party win 92% of the vote. Obiang's son, Vice President Teodorin Nguema Obiang, 49, was sentenced to three years in prison suspended by a French court last year and fined $ 35 million for money laundering. money, corruption and abuse of public power. badets, used to finance a sumptuous lifestyle in Paris.
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