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Alfredo Okenve, one of the leading human rights activists in Equatorial Guinea, was arrested at the Malabo airport on Friday night. By ISSOUF SANOGO (AFP / File)
A prominent human rights activist in Equatorial Guinea was arrested in Malabo, the capital, where he went to receive a prize for his work, said Saturday a party of the United Nations. opposition and a police source.
Alfredo Okenve was arrested at the Malabo airport on Friday night, the opposition announced in his statement Convergence for Social Democracy (CPDS).
"The agents took him to the Malabo central police station," said the CPDS, which has already seen its members arrested as part of a crackdown by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who heads the police. Western state for 39 years.
A police officer at the airport confirmed the arrest of the AFP.
We did not know immediately why he had been arrested.
Okenve left his home in the port city of Bata and arrived in Malabo on Thursday, a day before a ceremony at the French Institute, where he was to receive the Franco-German prize for human rights and the rule of law of French and German ambbadadors. .
But the awards ceremony Friday was canceled after the Guinean government sent an official note to envoys' representatives, said a regional diplomatic source.
Seen by AFP, the Foreign Ministry said that the government had not recognized the price because it was not involved in the selection process.
"Due to the lack of transparency in awarding this prize, the Government of Equatorial Guinea can not recognize its validity," he said.
The French and German embbadies deferred the award.
At the end of October, Okenve was seized and beaten by strangers who left him in a remote area of Bata.
After consulting a doctor in Madrid, he returned to Equatorial Guinea in mid-February.
He had already been detained for several days for celebrating the twentieth anniversary of his organization, the Center for Studies and Information for Development (CEIDGE).
Critics accuse Obiang, 76, the most senior leader of Africa, of brutal repression of opponents, electoral fraud and corruption.
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