|
Cuban
doctor forced to leave Gabon seeks asylum
in France
The
Tocqueville Connection,
6 April 2007.
LIBREVILLE, April 6, 2007 (AFP) - A Cuban
doctor who refused to return home after
working in Gabon sought asylum in France
on Friday when he stopped there after being
deported, one of his lawyers said.
Maulio Garcia Perez was finally flown
out of Gabon on Thursday evening towards
Cuba, Gabonese foreign ministry spokesman
Jean-Claude Mendome told AFP, weeks after
he was due to leave.
One of Perez's lawyers confirmed that
a Cuban diplomat picked him up from his
home and took him to Libreville airport
with the help of Gabonese police.
"He was due to board a plane for
Paris, from where he was to continue towards
Cuba, but I have just heard that he asked
for asylum in France this morning (Friday)
when he arrived," Jules Obiang told
AFP.
Perez arrived in Gabon in March 2005 with
about 20 colleagues as part of a cooperative
agreement between Libreville and Havana.
He worked in the public hospital in Port-Gentil,
in the southwest of Gabon, and should have
returned to Cuba on March 13.
Instead, he fled towards the border with
Cameroon where he was arrested by Gabonese
immigration officers.
Obiang said the doctor did not oppose
Fidel Castro's regime in Cuba but feared
reprisals if he returned there.
"He applied for asylum in Gabon on
March 28. His deportation was due to be
suspended until his case was considered,
but they went ahead with it. I don't know
where that decision came from," the
lawyer added.
|
