Month: October 2015

João Domingos da Rocha, 28 years old, has been held at Luanda Central Penitenciary under preventive detention for seven years. He is suspected of having stolen a bundle of  second-hand clothes.  I learnt of this case through the political prisoners Benedito Jeremias “Dito” and Itler Jessy Chiconde who had been held at the same prison. On one hand there is Luaty Beirão who has been drawing much international solidarity to the cause of freedom of expression in Angola through his hunger strike, which lasted 36 days.  On the other hand, there is the case of “Dito” and Itler who, days before, were tortured by prison guards.  This is a clear instance of the cruelty of the judicial system in the way it treats the disenfranchised members of society. “Dito”, Itler and Luaty, as well as the other 12 in prison, are awaiting trial while under preventive detention.  They have been […]

After visiting the fourteen young Angolan activists under detention, the activist Rafael Marques says that they have asked Luaty Beirão to end his hunger strike because “they need him alive” to ” continue with the struggle.” Luaty Beirão, the 33 year old Angolan musician is on the thirty-sixth (36) day of a hunger strike. He is protesting against the detention in June of a group of activists who have since been accused of trying to overthrow the president. “They are asking for Luaty to return to them alive and healthy; they look up to him as a respected moral leader,” said the activist Rafael Marques to Lusa. Marques had visited the fourteen prisoners at the São Paulo prison in Luanda; he then took the message over to Luaty Beirão who has been admitted into a clinic in the Angolan capital. Rafael Marques told Lusa that he took messages from the […]

Sol Wachtler, a former chief judge in New York state once remarked that a Grand Jury could “indict a ham sandwich” if necessary – a reference to United States Grand Juries being too easily swayed by the wishes of prosecutors. When reading the indictment of Case No 125-A/15 referring to Domingos Cruz, Sedrick de Carvalho, Albano Bingobingo and sixteen other citizens (among them 33 year-old Luaty Beirão who, in the charges, has been reborn and is now apparently 19) one gets the impression that a sandwich has been accused of a crime. We will therefore have to make an effort to understand the indictment, considering that it is a legal document drafted by people who have presumably mastered the law and know what they are doing. Let us look at the indictment from a technical point of view, trying to see whether it is possible that it reaches a valid […]

The world has its eyes on Luaty Beirão. The world is beginning to understand that the Angolan regime behaves exactly like a dictatorship: it imprisons and tortures its opponents. Not satisfied with the legal farce of the cases of Luaty Beirão and other young people as well as that of José Mavungo and Rafael Marques, the regime has once again broken the law by creating yet another political prisoner. Domingos Magno, a journalist for the site Central 7311, was detained on 16 October on charges of having committed the crime of “false pretense.” It seems Domingos Magno’s crime was to have obtained a press pass to attend the delivery of the State of the Nation speech by Vice President Manuel Vicente, at the National Assembly. According to the authorities, Domingos is not a journalist and should not have been able to get such a pass. The oppressive security services in […]

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 […]