Search Results for: Adolfo António

Young “Revolutionaries” Freed on Bail

On Monday, Judge Josefina Pedro of the Luanda Police Court ordered the release of eight youths who had been detained during a demonstration in the city on September 19. The detainees, all known to be members of the self-nominated Revolutionary Movement, were suspected of trying to organise an anti-government demonstration. They are Adolfo António, Adolfo Campos, Amândio Canhanga, António Ferreira, Joel Francisco, Pedro Teka, Quintuango Mabiala and Roberto Gamba. The eight first appeared in court for summary trial on September 20 and were released because there was not sufficient evidence against them. However, 20 minutes after their release, the Rapid Reaction Police rearrested seven members of the group while they were talking to journalist Rafael Marques de Morais about their earlier experiences of arrest and torture under police custody. Marques and two other journalists were arrested at the time same. Police beat all of the detainees, before releasing the three […]

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The Magnificent Seven

Last Friday, September 20, I went to attend the trial of the eight protesters, and a passer-by politician who had been arrested around Largo da Independência (Independence Square), in Luanda, the previous day. I arrived at the Ingombotas Court, known as the Police Court, with the lawyers from the human rights law firm Associação Mãos Livres: Salvador Freire, Zola Bambi and Afonso Mbinda. I had my camera with me on a strap around my neck. The hearing was public and there was space for one more person, but the police sergeant prevented me from entering, claiming that only lawyers were allowed in. The court is located in a residential building. In the corridor, next to the courtroom entrance, were six or seven policemen. The air was stuffy, the odour of human bodies filled the air. A policeman forbade me from entering the courtroom. I did not resist. I just went […]

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Police Detain 23 at Anti-Government Protest in Luanda

Angolan police detained 23 protestors, including an opposition official, near Luanda’s Largo de Independência on Thursday afternoon in connection with an attempted anti-government demonstration by the informal group of youths known as the Angolan Revolutionary Movement (ARM). A 2,000-strong police contingent, including armed police with machine guns and dogs and hundreds of state security agents, prevented the demonstration from occurring. At 12.30 p.m. police detained Manuel de Victória Pereira, who is both the national secretary of the Bloco Democrático party and the vice-president of the National Teachers’ Union, in the vicinity of Largo de Independência. Pereira was distributing party leaflets when he was detained. In a press statement, Bloco Democrático condemned the detention as a “contemptible” act that “confirms the dictatorial character of the current executive.” Police also seized Coque Mukuta, a Voice of America correspondent, for 30 minutes after he tried to check the name of a demonstrator who […]

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National Police Covers Up the Kidnapping of Activists

Eight of the nine demonstrators detained by the Angolan National Police on 29 July were seized again immediately after the police authorities had set them free, and held for a day with their whereabouts unknown. Adão Bunga “MC Life”,  Adolfo Campos, Agostinho Epalanga, Laurinda Gouveia, Manuel José Afonso “Feridão”, Raúl Mandela and Valdemiro Piedade experienced harrowing moments. Some of these individuals are among the most persecuted by the authorities, and have been detained and tortured several times before. A group of police arrested the activists around 4 pm near Cine Atlântico in Vila Alice, while they were on their way to join the demonstration at Largo de Independência. The police detained them, or “collected” them as the official account has it, and took them to the Third Police Station at Pau da Cobra in Vila Alice. Mário Faustino, who had only recently been released after more than 40 days in […]

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Violence and Arrests Thwarted Another Protest in Angola

On July 30, the Angolan authorities played a game of cat and mouse regarding the whereabouts of nine activists who were detained on Wednesday during a demonstration in support of 15 political prisoners. When approached by Maka Angola, the Luanda provincial police commander, Commissioner-Chief António Sita, started by saying “we haven’t detained anyone. [The activists] were being collected and directed to [the activist] David Salei’s home [in Viana municipality]. Adão Bunga “MC Life”, Adolfo Campos, Agostinho Epalanga, Kika Delegado, Laurinda Gouveia, Manuel José Afonso “Feridão”, Mário Faustino, Raúl Mandela and Valdemiro Piedade were held incommunicado since they were “collected” by the National Police at Largo da Independência (Independence Square). Commander Sita declared that the activists “want to create a political fact. They are playing a dirty game. They have switched off their mobile phones and are hiding at Kilometre 30 [in Viana] at Paposseco’s house.” He added that in order […]

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A Day in Court

The trial of Rafael Marques de Morais began on 24 March in Luanda, amid heavy security measures. In the opening session the defence learnt for the first time of new charges against the accused, for which no formal notification had been received. The trial was adjourned until 23 April to allow Marques de Morais and his lawyers to be formally notified of the charges and to examine their substance. The case initially involved eight charges of criminal libel,  stemming from the charge that Marques de Morais filed in 2011 against nine generals who are the owners of the private security company Teleservice and the diamond mining company Lumanhe, which is part of the mining consortium Sociedade Mineira do Cuango (SMC). Marques de Morais brought the charge against the generals on the basis of testimonies about torture and killings that were presented in his book Diamantes de Sangue: Tortura e Corrupção […]

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Angolan Police Detains 20 Demonstrators in Luanda

The Angolan National police arrested today some 20 youths, in Luanda, in a violent crackdown against anti-government protesters, who attempted to take to the streets to voice their discontent. Since 2011, small youth groups have been trying to emulate the Arab Spring in Angola, and their attempts have been met by disproportionate force by the police, pro-government militias, and the state security apparatus. The rapper Luaty Beirão and Adolfo Campos, one of the main figures in the Revolutionary Youth Movement, were arrested and taken to the Cazenga police station at about 9am. The two activists were among those who had gathered at the Santa Ana cemetery, the meeting point for the demonstration called by the movement, to protest against government repression. The protest was intended to put pressure on José Eduardo dos Santos’s government to make a public statement about the kidnapping, almost a year ago, of two activists, Alves […]

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Kangamba: the MPLA Convicted Candidate

The kick-start of the ruling People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), and president José Eduardo dos Santos campaign trail, on June 23, in the 11 de Novembro stadium, elicited the shadow and the real power of another dos Santos. Few people noticed it. On the stage erected outside the stadium, where several famous Angolan singers performed, and where the president was scheduled to address the crowds, another name was displayed on two huge posters on both sides of the stage: that of the controversial 47 year old political showman Bento Kangamba, whose real name is Bento dos Santos. The event was yet another masterful coup in the personal campaign of the self-proclaimed “businessman for youth” and president of Kabuscorp F.C. Bento Kangamba who is running for member of Parliament in the up-coming elections scheduled for August 31. The said candidate is the secretary of the MPLA’s provincial committee […]

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A Routine of Kidnappings

Five unidentified individuals abducted youth protest organizer Gaspar Luamba on June 14, in Luanda. For six hours and a half, they interrogated and harassed him. At around 10 A.M., as the activist finished a class on political sociology, at the Angolan Institute for International Politics (ISA), two classmates informed him that two individuals would like to speak to him downstairs. According to his narrative, when he went down, from the first floor, he saw no such individuals in the yard, and walked out of the premises. Mr. Luamba, aged 25, is a first-year student of international relations and political sciences at ISA. In the street, some hundred meters from the institute, two men approached him, and politely asked him to get into a car without any resistance to avoid alerting the passersby. As he hesitated, a pickup truck Mitsubishi L200 sped to cut his retreat, two men pulled out, one […]

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