Equatorial Guinea: announcement of "total amnesty", opposition expects acts

The opposition in Equatorial Guinea on Thursday cautiously welcomed the announcement of a "total amnesty" for political and opposition prisoners by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, now awaiting action.

Gabriel Nse Obiang, Chief Citizens for Innovation (CI), the main opposition party in Malabo, told AFP that it was waiting for "tomorrow or Saturday the release" of political prisoners announced the day before by President Nguema.

Affirming that he accorded "a lot of value" to the presidential decree, he encouraged the head of state to continue "in this way" of openness, but wished the amnesty to be "true" and not "a trap."

He therefore expects his party, dissolved in February, to be "automatically restored". "In this case, we are ready to go to the national dialogue scheduled for mid-July," he added.

M. Nse Obiang called on the opponents of the diaspora to return "so that we all dialogues" with the Malabo regime.

In a decree read Wednesday on television, President Obiang, 76, who has been running his country without sharing 1979, granted "total amnesty to all citizens condemned by the courts … for political offenses in the exercise of their activity, serving or not serving their sentence."

This amnesty extends to any person "deprived of liberty or prevented from exercising his political right in the country"

If it is applied quickly, this spectacular measure should result in the liberation of 21 militants of CI, condemned in February to more than 30 years of imprisonment, especially for "sedition."

This party, legalized in 2014 after a previous national dialogue, was dissolved four years later, at the same time as its supporters were sentenced as a result incidents in Aconibé (south-east). [19659003] The stated objective of the amnesty is, according to President Obiang Nguema, to "allow wide participation of all political actors" in a national dialogue scheduled for 16-21 July.

He undertakes to guarantee "freedom" and "security" to all participants in this dialogue, to which civil society, the Church and the international community have been invited and will be present for the first time

– Return of Severo Moto? –

The amnesty was one of the main conditions imposed by the opposition of the interior and the diaspora to take part in this national dialogue, the sixth under the Obiang presidency.

Sincerity and the credibility of President Obiang's announcement will also depend on the response of Severo Moto Nsa, 74, the head of a government in exile who has been a refugee in Spain for nearly 40 years.

He was sentenced in absentia to Malabo more than 160 years in prison for alleged involvement in attempted coups d'etat in 1997 and 2004.

A return to Malabo from the one who, in 2004, accused Obiang of being a "bloody, cannibal and "thief who devours the testicles and brains of his opponents, would be historic."

According to a European diplomat from Central Africa, the dialogue launched by President Obiang is "a game of fools, everyone knows it." "For a real dialogue (…), there should be really free elections," says the diplomat.

The Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE, in power) won 99 of the 100 seats in Parliament during the last legislative elections , in November. CI has had only one elected MP, in prison since December, without charge against him.

CI regularly denounces the exactions and "tortures" of which its imprisoned militants victims.

In February, the Union had worried about the "sharp deterioration of the human rights situation" in Equatorial Guinea, a small oil country in Central Africa, also known for the escapades of its vice president, Teodorin Nguema Obiang, son of the president

He is accused of looting the state coffers and buying luxury cars and lavish properties in the most expensive places in the world, including Paris.

Teodorin Obiang , 49, was sentenced by French justice in October 2017 to three years in prison suspended and 30 million euros fine, also suspended, in this case called "ill-gotten goods."

seems to be gaining more and more weight in his pay s to appear as the likely successor of his father: he recently signed a note stating that any authorization for travel abroad officials should go through his services.