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25 suspects detained after G.Bissau coup plot

30 December 2011 00:48 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Twenty-five renegade soldiers involved in an apparent coup plot in Guinea-Bissau are being detained in the capital and at an air base north of Bissau, APA reports quoting AFP.

The alleged mastermind of an attack on army headquarters Monday, navy chief Rear Admiral Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto, was among the officers and soldiers paraded in front of journalists in Bissau and the town of Mansoa.

The visit was organised by members of Guinea-Bissau’s civil society and overseen by armed troops.

Bubo Na Tchuto -- who has been branded a drug kingpin by the United States -- is being detained in Mansoa, 60 kilometres (40 miles) north of the capital, and the 24 others in four cells at the Bissau air base.

The navy chief, whose arrest was announced on Monday, told his visitors he was "in good spirits".

But he criticised the conditions of his detention in a 20-square-metre (215-square-feet) office at the Mansoa garrison that had been turned into a cell.

"Since I was brought here, I haven’t seen my doctor, I’m suffering from high blood pressure," he said, adding that he had not been able to see his family including his wife.

"When she sends food I never get it," he said.

In Bissau, journalists saw the 24 detainees held at the Bissalanca air base.

Journalists were not allowed to speak to them but members of NGOs said they also criticised the condition of their detention.

Guinea-Bissau is notoriously unstable, with a history of coups and army mutinies, and has become a stomping ground for drug cartels which use it as a hub to traffic drugs to Europe.