Malabo – Human rights activist Joaquin Elo Ayeto told AFP on Monday that Equatorial Guinea had released him after two days in detention for staging a debate on rights and corruption “without official authorisation”.
The small, Spanish-speaking central African country is one of the most closed and authoritarian in the world and has been led by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo for more than 43 years.
Elo Ayeto, coordinator of Somos+ Sociedad Civil group, who was arrested on Saturday, international human rights day, said: “I was released one minute ago.”
He said he had been told there would no legal consequences for having organised the rights conference.
“I was not tortured but my arrest was violent… the conditions in detention were bad,” said Elo Ayeto.
His lawyer Angel Obama Obiang Eseng had earlier told AFP, “The motive for his arrest and detention … does not hold up.
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“He organised a conference in a private establishment” and not a public place for which authorisation would be needed.
The authorities made no comment when asked about the arrest.
A year ago Elo Ayeto was thrown out of the sole political party that Malabo has not banned.
He was arrested in 2019 for attempted assassination of President Obiang, before the charges were reduced to defamation and threats against the president.
He was released without trial after a year in detention.
On September 25, Anacleto Micha Nlang, co-founder of banned rights group “Guinea is also ours”, was arrested. He remains in detention.
President Obiang was re-elected on November 20 with 94.9 percent of the votes.
The run-up to the election saw a crackdown that state media justified as a bid to counter a “foiled plot” by the opposition to attack embassies, petrol stations and the homes of ministers.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Twitter/@GeJuristas
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