Vice chairman lauds ‘distinctive’ second for Equatorial Guinea, the place the final execution occurred in 2014.
Equatorial Guinea has abolished the demise penalty after the nation’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo signed a brand new penal code into legislation.
Obiang’s son, the vp, introduced the transfer on social media on Monday.
“I’m writing in capitals to seal this distinctive second: ‘EQUATORIAL GUINEA HAS ABOLISHED THE DEATH PENALTY’,” Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue mentioned on Fb.
A journalist on state tv known as the occasion “historic for our nation” in a short announcement on the finish of a information programme.
The measure will come into pressure within the 90 days following its publication within the official state journal and was authorised upfront by parliament, the place all however one of many 100 legislators signify the ruling get together.
The final official execution within the West African nation was carried out in 2014, in line with Amnesty Worldwide, however worldwide non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the United Nations recurrently accuse the regime of pressured disappearances, arbitrary detention and torture.
President Obiang, 80, has spent greater than 43 years in energy, a world file when excluding monarchies.
Equatorial Guinea possesses important oil and gasoline sources, however the overwhelming majority of its 1.3 million inhabitants reside beneath the poverty line, in line with the World Financial institution.
The demise penalty stays authorized in additional than 30 African nations, though solely about half have carried out executions in recent times.