By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The families of two South African engineers imprisoned in Equatorial Guinea have called for their urgent release.
Frik Potgieter (54) and Peter Huxham (55) were arrested in February last year on what their families say are trumped-up drug charges.
Authorities in Equatorial Guinea however says implicating items were found in their luggage, referring to drugs.
Their arrest came days after luxury assets belonging to Equatorial Guinea’s Vice-President Teodore Nguema Obiang were confiscated in South Africa.
Obiang’s yacht and two villas in Cape Town were impounded in execution of a court order.
The yacht has reportedly since been released but the villas remain impounded, a BBC report says.
The South African expatriates were working for an oil and gas company when they “were illegally arrested and imprisoned” on “fake drug charges”, their petition says.
“Frik and Peter are innocent of these charges, and have been caught in a diplomatic battle between South Africa and Equatorial Guinea,” they say in their campaign on the petition platform change.org.
They have called for the assistance of the South African government as well as the UK government, as Mr Huxham has dual nationality.
South Africa’s Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor last month asked for the release of the two men during her visit to the Equatorial Guinea last month.
The South Africans were imprisoned for 12 years and fined $5m (£4m) each last June.
Their families say they are being held in a prison reserved for political prisoners in Mongomo in the east of the country.
