Portugal criticised for failure to condemn jail terms for Angola dissidents

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Portugal criticised for failure to condemn jail terms for Angola dissidents

6:10 CAT | 06 Apr 2016

Reuters / Members of the so-called Luanda book club, who were sentenced to between two and eight-and-a-half years in jail.

The Portuguese parliament has provoked outrage by failing to condemn the long prison sentences handed to the so-called Luanda book club, 17 dissidents convicted of political defiance against Angola’s government.

The Angolan president, José Eduardo dos Santos had warned the former colonial power against “interfering” in Angolan justice, but campaigners attacked the blocking of a motion in Lisbon to repudiate the verdicts as “complicity in the ongoing looting” of the country by the government.

The 17 include the rapper Luaty Beirão, the political writer Domingos da Cruz and the T-shirt seller Nito Alves, who were arrested along with two women for holding a meeting at which they discussed books, including one by the US author Dr Gene Sharp on non-violent protest entitled From Dictatorship to Democracy.

After a lengthy remand, during which several of the activists went on hunger strike, all 17 were handed jail terms ranging from two to eight-and-a-half years and given hefty fines.

Beirão was given five-and-a-half years for “falsifying documents” and Da Cruz was given the longest sentence “for leading the criminal association”.

Another activist, Francisco Mapanda, was later sentenced to eight months for contempt of court after shouting “this judgment is a joke” in the courtroom.

Both the prosecution and defence lawyers have said they will appeal against the sentences. There is particular concern about the state of health of Alves and Prof Nuno Dala, who has been on hunger strike for 19 days.

Sharp’s thinktank, The Albert Einstein Institution, has strongly condemned the men’s trial, as has the Human Rights Foundation in New York, which called on the Angolan government “to vacate the convictions and release the activists immediately.”.

Amnesty International has adopted all 17 as prisoners of conscience, and has called for their immediate release, calling the trial a “mockery of justice”.

Its director for southern Africa, Deprose Muchena, said: “The activists have been wrongly convicted in a deeply politicised trial. They are the victims of a government determined to intimidate anyone who dares to question its repressive policies.

“This unjustifiable conviction and draconian sentences against these peaceful activists who should never have been detained at all demonstrate how Angolan authorities use the criminal justice system to silence dissenting views.

Source: The Guardian