Search Results for: Political

There is an enormous controversy among Angolan legal experts about the ways in which President José Eduardo dos Santos could intervene in the case of the 17 youths charged with plotting to overthrow the government and assassinate him. Those ruling out a presidential intervention cite the principle of the separation of powers: the president is head of the executive and is not, therefore, able to instruct the judiciary. This argument is not valid. The principle of the separation of powers has not been enshrined in the Angolan constitution; what exists is a separation of functions or duties. (Art. 105. No 3).  These have to operate inter-dependently — that is, through the constitutional mechanisms  of checks and balances.  This means that the president has to respect the constitution, but he can also, within the stated limits, intervene in the different power centers. He also has the duty of always defending the main […]

The activist Antonio Diogo de Santana Domingos “Magno”, 38, will be spending his fifth day in preventive detention because he tried to get into the Angolan National Assembly to listen to the State of the Nation speech,  delivered on  October 15th by Vice President Manuel Vicente. Domingos Magno, as he is known, did not even manage to get within 200 meters of the National Assembly.  Maka Angola has spoken to several relatives, friends and police sources to account for what happened. The activist was detained soon after 10 am by two state security agents who had been following him.  This happened soon after he got a press pass from the company NCR, which should have allowed him into the National Assembly building. After his detention, agents accompanied by special forces from the police went to the Fourth Police Station in Maianga where he was interviewed alone by State security agents. […]

Albano Bingobingo is very ill. This is his tenth day on hunger strike. Maka Angola learnt through sources within the prison system that Bingobingo has also been severely tortured by guards at the São Paulo Penitenciary in Luanda. “Bingobingo’s eyes have sunken. He is very sick; he has a swollen leg and remained locked up in a human pigsty without any medical assistance,” said the source. Henriqueta Diogo, wife of the political prisoner Benedito Jeremias, also told Maka Angola that Albano Bingobingo has serious difficulties in urinating. On October 14, at around 23:00, four of the political prisoners of the now famous 15+1 Case – Benedito Jeremias, Afonso Matias “Mbanza Hamza”; Hitler Jessy Chiconde, and Albano Bingobingo – were transferred from the São Paulo Penitenciary to the Luanda Central Penitenciary. The norm is for detainees to be transferred during the day; however, in the case of these political prisoners, the government […]

“I saw the wounds on the legs, the hands and on his back. I had to massage him as he was very swollen. He took a heavy beating. Fifteen to twenty police tortured him. He can hardly walk,” revealed Henriqueta Diogo.  She was referring to the terror her husband, the political prisoner Benedito Jeremias, experienced last Friday at the São Paulo prison hospital in Luanda. According to Henriqueta Diogo, her husband and five others who have been detained in the 15+1 case were protesting over what is supposed to be a basic right – being able to talk to each other during breaks. “The police started beating him while he was in his cell with electric truncheons while  the jail’s deputy director, Aldivino Oliveira, took photographs and filmed everything. He was then dragged out of the cell where the punishment continued, “ said Henriqueta Diogo. Yesterday, Henriqueta Diogo found her […]

The Luanda Provincial Government has prohibited a protest by mothers, sisters and wives of 15 Angolan political prisoners to demand the release of their relatives. They had hoped to demonstrate on 28 August, the president’s birthday. They delivered a letter on Wednesday to the Luanda provincial governor, Graciano Domingos, informing him of their intention to hold a demonstration and vigil. The negative response from vice-governor Jovelina Imperial came in less than 24 hours, citing a clause in the law on demonstrations and meetings that states “parades and processions may not take place before 7 pm on a weekday”. The demonstration was scheduled for 3 pm on a Friday. The governor’s office added that holding a demonstration that defied a legal prohibition would be punishable as the crime of “disobedience” in term of the Penal Code. Reacting to the letter, Isabel Correira, the mother of political prisoner Osvaldo Caholo and one […]

The activist David Salei is in a fragile state after hours in the emergency ward of Américo Boavida Hospital in Luanda as the result of the beating he received during a police crackdown on a protest march organised by the mothers and families of 15 political prisoners. Fellow activist Paulo Paixão told Maka Angola that David Salei “was brutally kicked in the ribs and abdomen and punched several times. He is in a bad state, he can’t talk properly and one of his legs is paralysed.” David Salei (right) ended up in the emergency war after severe beatings by the police. “I was hit twice in the back but I managed to escape,” Paulo Paixão said. The elder sister of the political prisoner Fernando Tomás “Nicola Radical” was attacked by a dog that police unleashed on the demonstrators. The dog latched onto her clothing, and pulled her so that she […]