The foreign minister of Equatorial Guinea has refuted reports that a well-known dissident in the nation passed away while serving a 60-year prison term.
Julio Obama Mefuman, 51, “died in Oveng Azem prison”, his MLGE3R movement is quoted as saying by AFP news agency.
It accused the country’s regime, without elaborating, of “torture”.
Informamos a la Comunidad Internacional que,Julio Obama Mefuman un ecuatoguineano que participó en la frustrada intentona golpista del 27 de diciembre de 2017 y que, recibió un juicio justo, ha fallecido en un hospital de Mongomo a causa de una enfermedad que venía padeciendo.
— Simeón Oyono Esono Angue (@AngueSimeon) January 16, 2023
But in a tweet on Monday, the Foreign Minister Simeon Oyono Esono Angue said the dissident died in a hospital and denied accusations of torture.
He said Obama Mefuman “died in a Mongomo hospital due to an illness he had been suffering from”.
The head of Equatorial Guinea’s only authorised opposition party, the Convergence for Social Democracy (CPDS), condemned “Julio Obama’s death in prison.”
“The death of Julio Obama in the Oveng Azém prison is confirmed. CPDS condemns this fact. Obama was a Spanish citizen and the GE government must open an international investigation to clarify what happened and allow all the prisoners to be visited by their families,” party Secretary General Andres Esono Ondo said in a tweet.
Source: BBC