Angola prosecutor demands jail for Dos Santos opponents

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Angola prosecutor demands jail for Dos Santos opponents

12:31 CAT | 22 Mar 2016

Angola’s public prosecutor on Monday demanded jail terms of up to 13 years for 17 youth activists accused of rebellion and preparing a coup against President Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

The Angolan opposition sees their trial as evidence of ingrained political repression.

“During questioning it has been confirmed that the accused are guilty of crimes of rebellion, acts preparing a coup against president Jose Eduardo dos Santos and association with wrongdoers,” prosecutor Isabel Nicolau Francony said.

Francony said she was asking for sentences from three months to 13 years.

Judge Juanario Domingos was later to announce a verdict date.

One of the accused is popular rapper Luaty Beirao, who went on hunger strike for a month last year to protest his detention.

The activists insist they are peaceful campaigners for the departure of dos Santos, who has ruled the former Portuguese colony for 37 years and is Africa’s second longest-serving leader.

Fifteen of the group remain in detention nine months after they were first picked up.

One of the group, Nuno Dala, did not attend Thursday’s summons owing to fatigue 12 days into a hunger strike.

Angola has sought to limit coverage of the case, banning international observers, allowing in journalists only intermittently and permitting each accused just two supporters in court.

Amnesty International’s deputy director for Southern Africa, Muleya Mwananyanda, in December denounced the trial as a “parody of justice” that cast doubt on the independence of the judicial system.

Dos Santos, 73, said earlier this month he would quit in 2018. But there was scepticism over whether he would do so after two similar pledges in the past.

His current mandate ends at the end of next year.

Source:

AFP / Angola President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos waiting for the arrival of his French counterpart at the presidential palace on July 3, 2015 in Luanda.