Category: Articles

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 […]

The Angolan president’s address to the nation was delivered by Vice-President Manuel Vicente since President José Eduardo dos Santos failed to appear in Parliament – for reasons of health, it was claimed. The most notable features of the speech were the president’s absence and the silence, and apparent indifference, regarding the political prisoners held in Luanda. In a critical state: Luaty Beirão and the president The president’s state of health has long been a taboo subject. When it is mentioned at the most solemn event on the presidential calendar, it becomes clear that the president has run out of arguments and must indeed have serious health problems. But right now his biggest headache is the political prisoner Luaty Beirão, who is in a critical condition after 24 days on hunger strike. Many citizens had high hopes for the speech, because they thought the president would take the chance to present […]

“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 […]

In Angola thinking is a crime. This is what can be concluded from the 39 articles in the charges against the most famous political prisoners of our times, in Angola. The essence of the charges are based on a simple technicality. Since there were no facts or evidence to produce a “serious charge,” even if it had to do with intention to commit a crime, the publica prosecution came up with “preparatory acts.” The fact is that preparatory acts are usually not punishable. These acts are only punishable in very special cases such as an attempt on the life of the President of the Republic. In this way, the young people who were meeting to exchange ideas have been charged with making an attempt on the President’s life and with rebellion because there is no crime to speak of.  Therefore, the judicial authorities had to turn to exceptional accusations resting […]

Luaty’s life is at risk. He has been on hunger strike for 21 days. This is his way of protesting against being detained and abused for more than 100 days, due to a coercive measure put in place by President dos Santos’s attorney general. I fully understand Luaty’s lonely struggle in this regime’s decision makers’ hour of madness. I understand all the better because I went through a similar experience in 1999 when I was arrested for calling this same president “corrupt” and a “dictator”. I spent 14 days on hunger strike. Why do I mention this? Because sometimes you have to remember past cases to assess the conduct of those who fight for freedom, and the behaviour of those who oppress us: in this case, the President’s men. When I was led to a cell of the Central Forensic Laboratory, adjoining the Santana Cemetery, the then director of the […]