Scores of people including several military officers have gone on secret trial in this oil-rich nation's economic capital at Bata, opposition sources said Saturday, in what appeared to be a reflection of tensions seething around the strongman president Teodoro Obian Nguema.
The trial followed reports of troop reassignments that apparently broke up a coterie of officers loyal to the president's half-brother, General Agustin Ndong Ona, who was said to be in Spain for medical treatment following two attempts at suicide.
Government spokesmen have consistently denied that a political crisis is taking place here or that there are "differences of opinion" at the center of power, despite reports that Ndong Ona drove his automobile into the sea after "strong words" with the president's eldest son, also called Teodoro Nguema Obiang.
The foreign minister, Pastor Micha, speaking in Madrid this week, confirmed that a wave of arrests, including that of several army officers, had taken place in December but said it had nothing to do with a supposed coup attempt.
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