Lawyers file ‘torture’ complaint against E. Guinea minister

MALABO, Equatorial Guinea: Lawyers in Equatorial Guinea have filed a complaint at the supreme court against the country’s security minister over the alleged torture of opposition activists, according to papers seen by AFP on Saturday.

Three lawyers representing 144 members of the opposition Citizens for Innovation (CI) party lodged the complaint against Nicolas Obama Nchama and “the police of Malabo, Bata and Aconibe”, where the alleged crimes took place.

Officers “received the instructions from the hierarchy and took charge of torturing the militants”, the lawyers said in the papers registered on June 11 at the supreme court in the capital Malabo.

CI says several of their members were tortured between Dec 28 and Jan 3 as they were held at the central police station in Malabo, dubbed ‘Guantanamo’ after the controversial United States camp in Cuba.

They had been arrested after an attempted rally in early November.

Photos showing the alleged acts of torture on 12 of the activists are included in the papers filed to the court.

The party has said that during their trial for “rebellion” in February, around 30 of the 147 defendants on trial could not even stand up because of the alleged torture they endured at ‘Guantanamo’. Three of the 147 are not part of the “torture” complaint. — AFP