Brussels 20.02.2023 Equatorial Guinea: violence against opposition activists, notably Julio Obama Mefuman.

The European Parliament holds the Equatoguinean dictatorial regime responsible for the death of Julio Obama, a prominent dissident and a Spanish and Equatoguinean citizen. MEPs call for the liberation of three other members of the opposition movement MLGE3R. They urge Equatorial Guinea to fully cooperate with Spanish judicial authorities and strongly condemn the dictatorial regime’s systemic political persecution and barbaric repression of political opponents and human rights defenders.

Parliament urges EU member states to demand the end to all political persecution, as well as an independent inquiry into the death of Obama Mefuman and the wider situation of political prisoners. MEPs want the EU to sanction regime members involved in human rights violations.

In 2019, Julio Obama Mefuman and other opposition members were kidnapped in South Sudan and flown to Equatorial Guinea where they were sentenced on charges of terrorism, denied consular assistance and allegedly tortured. Obama Mefuman died in prison in January.