The Supreme Military Council opened Case 1/979 on 18 August 1979, and began interviewing witnesses and collecting evidence against the Macías Nguema regime. The Council subsequently convened a military tribunal on 24 September to try Macías Nguema and several members of his regime. The charges for the ten defendants included genocide, mass murder, embezzlement of public funds, violations of human rights, and treason.[11] The state prosecutor requested that Macías Nguema receive the death penalty, five others receive thirty years in prison, and four others receive a year in prison. Macías Nguemas defense counsel countered that the other co-defendants were responsible for specific crimes, and asked for acquittal. Macías Nguema himself delivered a statement to the court outlining what he viewed as the extensive good deeds he had performed for the country. At noon on 29 September 1979, the Tribunal delivered its sentences, which were more severe than what the prosecution had requested. Macías Nguema and six of his co-defendants were sentenced to death and the confiscation of their property; Nguema being sentenced to death 101 times.[12] Two defendants were sentenced to fourteen years in prison, and two others to four years.[13] With no higher court available to hear appeals, the decision of the Special Military Tribunal was final. Macías Nguema and the six other defendants sentenced to death were executed by a hired Moroccan Army firing squad at Black Beach Prison at 6 pm on the same day.[14][15][16] During his execution, he was reportedly calm and dignified.[17] Today, Macías Nguema is regarded as one of the most kleptocratic, corrupt and dictatorial leaders in post-colonial African history. Depending on the source, he was responsible for the deaths of anywhere from 50,000 to 80,000 people. According to Penn State professor Randall Fegley, one of the few non-African authorities on Equatorial Guinea, this was proportionally worse than the Nazis rampage through Europe.[1] He has been compared to Pol Pot because of the violent, unpredictable, and anti-intellectual nature of both regimes
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 11:22:42 +0000
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