Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-07-03-Speech-3-247"
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"en.20020703.7.3-247"2
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"Mr President, the Council has carefully monitored the arrest of opposition politicians in Equatorial Guinea, together with the dubious circumstances of their detention, the court case and the most recent judgments. Even though the prosecution demanded the death penalty, the opposition leaders were, in the very end, sentenced to imprisonment of between six and twenty years for allegedly having plotted to overthrow President Obiang.
In spite of the president’s assurances that human rights are respected, the EU has expressed its concern about procedural irregularities during the court case, as well as about the allegations of torture and maltreatment suffered by the accused. There continue to be serious doubts about the legality of the detentions.
On Monday 10 June, straight after the judgments had been pronounced, the Presidency issued a declaration on behalf of the EU in which it appealed to the relevant authorities in Equatorial Guinea to make the necessary arrangements to have the judgements quashed in order to ensure that the basic rights of the accused were respected. In the EU’s view, the evidence against the accused politicians is flimsy, in sharp contrast to the severity of the judgments. Hence, our demand that the cases be re-examined.
The EU expressed serious doubts about the authorities’ willingness to defend the principle of the Rule of Law and to fulfil its human rights obligations, recently entered into in connection with the 58th meeting of the UN’s Commission on Human Rights. The EU also referred to Equatorial Guinea’s obligations under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment – the convention recently signed by Equatorial Guinea. The EU has therefore been prompt, consistent and firm and, as can be seen, it has a considerable lack of confidence in the court decisions in Equatorial Guinea to which I have referred."@en1
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