Equatorial Guinea should release a human rights activist who was detained for denouncing the arrest of an opposition leader, said a human rights group.<\/p>\n
Luis Nzo was beaten and then arrested on Thursday in the tiny, oil-rich Central African nation for distributing leaflets and using a megaphone to deplore the arrest of Guillermo Nguema, Amnesty International said late Friday.<\/p>\n
Nguema, leader of the Republican Democratic Force opposition party, was arrested earlier in the week and taken to a village in the country’s far east. He had been told he cannot leave the village without authorization, according to Amnesty.<\/p>\n
“Luis Nzo must be immediately and unconditionally released, and all restrictions of movement lifted from Guillermo Nguema,” said Marta Colomer Aguilera, a campaigner for Amnesty. “There is no legitimate reason to justify this \u2014 it is simply a crackdown on dissent.”<\/p>\n
Amnesty and EG Justice, a U.S.-based rights group focused on Equatorial Guinea, say they have evidence Nzo was beaten when he refused to stop handing out leaflets and then taken to a police station. He is being held without charge.<\/p>\n
Equatorial Guinea is home to Africa’s longest serving strongman, President Teodoro Obiang, who came to power through a military coup in 1979. It has the highest per capita income in Africa but its oil money benefits only a small elite and Obiang stifles the opposition.<\/p>\n
AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Equatorial Guinea should release a human rights activist who was detained for denouncing the arrest of an opposition leader, said a human rights group. Luis Nzo was beaten and then arrested on Thursday in the tiny, oil-rich Central African nation for distributing leaflets and using a megaphone to deplore the arrest of Guillermo Nguema, Amnesty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1126,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,295],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-africa","category-human-rights-defenders-messages"],"yoast_head":"\n