Category: Articles

Angola: A Spy Network That Exists Only on Paper

From Africa Org to “Ciência Política de Angola,” the state constructs a chain of imaginary organisations to accuse journalists and opposition youth of espionage. None of the entities exist, and not a single act meets the legal definition of espionage.If Angola truly believed Russia was behind a coup attempt, it would expel diplomats and sever military ties — not keep a Russian general inside the Presidential Palace. The accusation serves internal politics, not national security. This text examines the espionage charges within Case File 3846/25-CE, the same case in which Judge António Negrão uncritically validated the terrorism theory already dismissed by the Public Prosecutor. If the claim of terrorism was absurd, the accusation of espionage is nothing short of a parody. According to the official narrative, two Russian citizens — Igor Ratchin Mihailovic and Lev Matveevich Lakshtanov — allegedly travelled to Angola to set up a clandestine espionage operation, assisted […]

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Angola: When the State Needs Terrorists, It Creates Them

The Public Prosecutor confirmed the taxi strike involved no crime, no violence and no terrorism — yet the court insisted on a fabricated “state of terror.” The real danger was not in the streets, but in a judiciary willing to turn protest into national security fiction. The Office of the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR) has formally confirmed in writing that the alleged “terrorist conspiracy” connected to the Luanda taxi strike of 28–30 July 2025 never existed. There was no incitement, no violence, no material damage and no criminal plan orchestrated by the leaders of the taxi associations and cooperatives that called the strike. The accusation collapsed entirely, leading to the immediate release of those who had been detained. What had been presented as a national security threat was, in reality, a case of preventive repression and the political manipulation of criminal law.  On 12 December 2025, Public Prosecutor […]

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How Angola Turned a Fashion Designer into a “Terrorist”

Arrested at dawn, stripped of her dignity, and accused of ISIS links without a single act of violence or any evidence, Aisha Lopes became the symbol of a state willing to criminalise faith and invent enemies to justify repression. This report summarizes the case of Aisha Lopes and co‑accused, originally published by Maka Angola in 2017. It demonstrates how the Angolan state fabricated terrorism allegations against innocent citizens — using intimidation, torture, and legal manipulation — in ways that mirror the recent cases of “terrorism” and “espionage” against journalists, youth leaders and association members. The Aisha Lopes case is included here so observers can understand the continuity of abusive investigative methods, the criminalization of religious minorities, and the systematic invention of internal enemies for political purposes. Background of the case On 2 December 2016, just before dawn, more than twenty agents from the Criminal Investigation Service (SIC) and associated security […]

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No Money in 2026: Angola Enters a Dangerous Fiscal Year

Angola debates many topics, but often avoids the most fundamental: how the State will finance itself in the immediate future. A close reading of the 2026 General State Budget (OGE), and especially its financing operations, shows a structural and cyclical problem converging — the State is likely to run out of money in 2026. The Ministry of Finance’s Budget Justification Report confirms extreme dependence on both internal and external borrowing to balance the accounts. According to the official “Summary of Revenue by Source,” external financing is expected to account for 23.85% of total resources, and domestic financing for another 21.39%. Nearly 45% of the entire budget is not covered by taxes or fees, but relies on loans that may or may not materialize. Angola will effectively be borrowing continuously to stay afloat. Even more troubling is that part of this borrowing will fund current expenditures, not investment. In practice, the […]

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From Anger to “Rebellion”: How Angola Is Stretching the Law

By treating frustration as rebellion and hyperbole as threat, Angola risks turning political discourse into criminal liability — and justice into theatre. Social activist Osvaldo Caholo has been imprisoned for almost six months for comments he made during a live social media broadcast at an anti-government protest in Luanda on 12 July 2025. Under Criminal Case No. 3807/25, the Angolan Public Prosecutor has charged him with rebellion, public instigation to crime and public apology of crime — accusations that rest entirely on spoken words, not actions, organisation or demonstrable criminal capacity. The indictment cites statements allegedly made by the defendant on social media in a context of evident emotional agitation and broader social unrest. However, expressing indignation, even in harsh terms, does not constitute acts that could be considered crimes against state security. Regarding the crime of rebellion, as defined in Article 329 of the Angolan Penal Code, the prosecution […]

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Angola’s War on Words: Turning Journalism into Espionage

Angola’s case against journalist Amor Carlos Tomé treats opinion as conspiracy, press clippings as espionage, and critical writing as terrorism — exposing the fragility of the state’s narrative, not the danger of the accused. Angolan sports journalist Amor Carlos Tomé has been in custody since August, facing nine serious charges: espionage, terrorism, belonging to a terrorist organization, influence peddling, criminal association, incitement, active corruption, fraud and variations of the same. It is an imposing catalogue. But the weight of the accusation is not matched by the weight of the evidence. Prosecutors claim Tomé was the key operator in a Russian-backed conspiracy to overthrow President João Lourenço. The alleged weapon is not a gun, a militia, or a covert network — but the pen. Angola’s Public Prosecutor says the plot relied on recruiting journalists, analysts and content producers to create “instability” and “social convulsion”. No guns. No clandestine cells. Only texts. […]

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Amor Carlos Tomé: From Journalist to “Terrorist” (Part I)

A public broadcaster journalist is charged with terrorism for texts describing a taxi strike that urged citizens to stay home. The case raises urgent questions about press freedom and criminal law in Angola. The Public Prosecutor’s Office accuses two Russian citizens and two Angolans of jointly committing the crimes of espionage, terrorism, terrorist organization, influence peddling, and criminal association. In this second article of the series, we examine in detail the case of Amor Carlos Tomé, a sports journalist at Angola’s public broadcaster Televisão Pública de Angola (TPA), portrayed in the indictment as the principal executor of an alleged Russian operation of terrorism and espionage aimed at staging a coup d’état against President João Lourenço. On 8 January, the Luanda District Court, 3rd Criminal Section, will begin hearing the defendants in the adversarial pre-trial phase. The accused are the Russian nationals Lev Lakshtanov (65) and Igor Ratchin (38), Francisco Oliveira […]

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Angola: When the Party Enters the Bank

Angola’s continued placement under enhanced monitoring by the Financial Action Task Force(FATF) has once again exposed deep structural weaknesses in the country’s banking system. More than the existence of laws, what is at stake is Angola’s ability to demonstrate, in practice, an effective separation between political power, bank ownership, and financial supervision. The high concentration of politically exposed persons (PEPs) within the financial system — often concealed through opaque corporate structures — continues to undermine institutional credibility in the eyes of international regulators and partners. When the FATF placed Angola under enhanced monitoring in October 2024, the decision was framed as a technical alert. It led to clear political-institutional and economic consequences: heightened international scrutiny, increased compliance costs for correspondent banking relationships, and a higher perception of country risk. The overlap between political power and the banking system is not new in Angola. Over the years, several financial institutions have […]

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Angola: The Country of Lourenço

Over the past years, Angola has come to be governed less as a republic and more as a personalized system of power. What once functioned as a party-state has gradually evolved into something narrower and more concentrated: a president-state. This transformation did not occur through rupture or overt authoritarian declaration. It unfolded quietly, through administrative practice, selective enforcement of the law, and the steady erosion of institutional counterweights. João Lourenço did not invent this system — but he consolidated and personalized it. For decades, Angola operated under a party-state logic, in which the ruling party absorbed state institutions. Under Lourenço, that model shifted. The party was not democratized; it was subordinated. Decision-making migrated from collective party bodies to the presidency itself. Today, the ruling party functions less as a space for deliberation and more as a mechanism of validation. Internal competition is discouraged, dissent is neutralized, and succession is carefully […]

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Angola Land Scandal Exposes Deep Institutional Capture

Public land returned to the State in 2020 was quietly diverted inside Angola’s own institutions between 2021 and 2024. The IGCA falsified registries, erased beneficiaries, undervalued the land by 96-fold, and enabled private subdivision among companies linked to senior officials. Angola has once again exposed a truth its government works hard to bury: public assets are not merely mismanaged — they are actively fed into networks of political patronage operating inside the State itself. A new investigation shows how 82.6 hectares of State land on the outskirts of Luanda were quietly diverted to private interests through an internal scheme at the Instituto Geográfico e Cadastral de Angola (IGCA). It is a case that reveals not just corruption, but institutional collapse — the kind that thrives when no one in power expects to be held accountable. The plot originally belonged to União Cervejeira de Angola (ÚNICA), a brewing venture with Portuguese […]

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