ARMENIAN PILOTS VICTIMS OF EQUATO-GUINEAN PRESIDENT PARANOIA, GERMAN AIR COMPANY CHAIRMAN SUPPOSES

PanARMENIAN.Net - The six Armenian pilots languishing in prison in Equatorial Guinea have nothing to do with a reported international conspiracy to overthrow the longtime ruler of the oil-rich central African nation, the German company that leased their cargo plane said on Monday. Thomas Rinnerd, chairman of the Central Asian Logistics (CAL) airfreight firm, lent his full support to the protestations of innocence voiced by Captain Ashot Karapetian and the members of his aircrew that went on trial a month ago. "The Armenian pilots are 200 percent innocent. So is our company," Rinnerd told RFE/RL from his office near Frankfurt. "We are victims of the paranoia of this president." The Armenians operated an Antonov-12 aircraft belonging to a Yerevan-based small company contracted by CAL. According to the CAL boss, they were supposed to deliver spare parts and other supplies to Equatorial Guinea's oil industry. Rinnerd endorsed reports that his company's representative to Malabo, Gerhard Merz, died in prison several days after being arrested together with the Armenians not of cerebral malaria, as is claimed by the Equato-Guinean government, but, as shown by the results of the autopsy, of torture. In Rinnerd's words, the German company which has tried to help the pilots, but the Equato-Guinean authorities told us very strictly, `You are not Armenian, you are not an Armenian Embassy to be involved in this.' It should be reminded that there is no Armenian Embassy in the country.