Search Results for: Luanda

The Supreme Court upheld the habeas corpus petition presented by the defence of the 17 activists of the Luanda Book Club, convicted for rebellion and criminal association, who have been serving their prison sentences since March 28. Their lawyer, Michel Francisco, told Lusa “I can announce that I received a call from the Supreme Court to tell me that they will be freed. It has been confirmed and I will witness their release,” the lawyer told Lusa, alluding to the response to the “habeas corpus” petition that had been pending since April. The petition requested that the activists be released while they await a decision regarding their appeal against their conviction for rebellion and criminal association.

Reports from Luanda today (April 13) say that the Angolan National Director of Prison Services, Commissar António Fortunato, has responded to international outrage over the inhumane conditions in the prisons to which the 17 prisoners of conscience, sentenced in what has come to be known as the Luanda Book Club trial.  Commissar Fortunato told Angolan National Radio (RNA) that the authorities would be moving all the imprisoned dissidents to one jail, Viana, one of the municipalities on the eastern outskirts of Luanda. Three of the jailed prisoners of conscience are already being held in Viana – the two female activists Rosa Conde and Laurinda Gouveia are in the women’s wing, while Laurinda’s partner, Nito Alves is in the male wing. Name: Manuel Baptista Chivonde Nito Alves Age: 19 years old Birthplace: Huambo Education: Law student, Instituto Superior Politécnico São Francisco de Assis Occupation: Student Charged with conspiracy to plot a […]

Name: Sedrick de Carvalho Age: 26 years old Place of Birth: Luanda Education: Law, Jean Piaget University Occupation: Journalist for Folha 8, O Golo Charges: Conspiracy to rebellion and criminal association Sedrick de Carvalho began his career in 2011 at the weekly publication Folha 8 as a page layout designer, going on to become a journalist. In 2013 he joined Novo Jornal, where he regularly wrote features on social and economic issues. At the end of his contract last January, he returned to Folha 8, where he still covers social and economic affairs. He also launched a sports blog O Golo and was its main contributor. Sedrick taught a course on page design at the Evangelical Church of Angola before joining the Luanda Book Club on Saturday, June 20, 2015. His colleagues state that Sedrick’s laptop was broken and that he had borrowed one from journalist and writer Domingos da […]

As they predicted from the moment of their arrest, the political dissidents who dared to think about a transition from dictatorship to democracy in Angola, have been found guilty at their show trial of a “conspiracy to rebel” against the 36-year government of President José Eduardo dos Santos. All 17 defendants caught or suspected of reading Gene Sharp’s book advocating nonviolent means of resisting dictatorship in June last year, have been found guilty of the crimes of “preparation for rebellion” and “criminal association”, and handed prison sentences ranging from two to eight years.  Charges of preparing a coup against the President were dropped. The development has been widely condemned by human rights organizations around the world.  In New York, the Human Rights Foundation issued a statement strongly condemning the convictions and sentences and called on the Angolan government “to vacate the convictions and release the activists immediately.” Journalist Domingos da […]

Late last year, after a torrid few weeks under the gaze of the world’s media, the trial of dissidents charged with rebellion against Angola’s MPLA government was abruptly adjourned in time for Christmas.  This was seen as less a gesture of seasonal goodwill, more an attempt to shake off some increasingly uncomfortable scrutiny by the outside world. The initial 15 defendants, known as the “Luanda Book Club”, are a group of youthful dissidents and activists who were arrested for having gathered to read and discuss Gene Sharp’s ‘From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation”.  The book is described as a blueprint for nonviolent resistance to repressive regimes.  For the heinous act of reading about resistance, they were charged with conspiracy to overthrow the state.  Two other human rights activists were later added to the charge sheet, though not held in detention. After months in preventative custody, Rapper Luaty Beirão and his […]

“They took me to the Police Station in the Nova Vida (New Life) Project where some policemen punched and kicked me,” says 28 year-old Benjamin Filipe, as he recalls the events of August 20th, 2012. The young man was working as a mechanic in a private workshop and lived in Fubu District at the back end of the Nova Vida Project, south of the Angolan capital, Luanda.  That day “the police went to my home, saying I possessed a weapon and had committed a crime”, he explains. “They kicked me in the head so much that my ears bled”, he says.  “And then after what they called this “softening up”, one of the policemen took some pliers and pulled out three fingernails: from the index finger, middle finger and little finger of my right hand”. Such ill-treatment merits the definition of torture.  And it was only after this that the […]