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Equatorial guinea coup trial grossly unfair { November 30 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)    http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=630502§ion=news http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=630502§ion=news Equatorial Guinea coup trial "grossly unfair" Tue 30 November, 2004 19:20 By Estelle Shirbon MADRID (Reuters) - Equatorial Guinea's trial of 19 suspected mercenaries accused of plotting a coup in the oil-rich African country is "grossly unfair" and the court has ignored allegations of torture, Amnesty International has said. A court in the Equatorial Guinean capital Malabo last Friday sentenced 11 foreigners it said were involved in an attempt to topple President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo to jail terms ranging from 14 to 34 years. Two Equatorial Guineans were sentenced to 16 months' imprisonment. Three other Equatorial Guineans and three South Africans were acquitted. "No evidence was presented in court to sustain the charges against the accused other than their statements, which the defendants said had been extracted under torture," Amnesty said on Tuesday. "However, defendants' protestations to this effect were ignored by the bench ... No court can ignore allegations as serious as these," the human rights group said in a statement. Authorities in Equatorial Guinea say the men on trial were an advance party of mercenaries bent on killing Obiang and replacing him with exiled opposition politician Severo Moto, who has denied any role in the plot. They say a web of foreign financiers hungry for a share of Equatorial Guinea's oil wealth backed the scheme. The widely respected human rights group's condemnation could complicate any possible attempt by Equatorial Guinea to obtain the extradition of the alleged financial backers of the plot. They include Mark Thatcher, son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who faces trial in South Africa on charges he helped finance the scheme. Thatcher denies any role. DEFENDANTS' RIGHTS VIOLATED-AMNESTY Amnesty said the rights of the eight South Africans and six Armenians on trial had been violated from the moment of their arrest on March 8. "All defendants were held incommunicado, handcuffed and shackled 24 hours a day," it said. "They did not receive an adequate diet, and only rarely received medical treatment for the many ailments that afflicted them in prison." The state prosecutor told the court during the trial that all the suspects' rights had been respected. Those convicted will remain in the same jail where they have been held so far, Malabo's infamous Black Beach prison. Amnesty said a question mark remained over the fate of Gerhard Merz, a German also arrested on March 8 who died in Black Beach nine days later. Authorities said he was killed by cerebral malaria but two defendants in the trial told the court he died as a result of torture. Amnesty said the men did not see their defence lawyers until two days before the start of the trial. It also said the statements presented in court were in Spanish -- a language the defendants did not understand -- and that the English translation provided to the South African suspects missed out or distorted vital pieces of information. "Neither the verdict not the sentences were translated, and the defendants left the court with no knowledge of their fate." The foreign suspects appeared in court with their wrists and ankles chained together at all times, which Amnesty said was "cruel, degrading and inhumane treatment".

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