The demonstration against the vandalism law was stopped by the police, as it was not authorised, and several activists and a journalist were arrested at the meeting place, the Santa Ana cemetery.
Seven of the protesters arrested on Saturday by Angolan police as they were preparing for a demonstration challenging the Law on the offences of vandalism of public goods and services in Luanda have already been released, activist Laura Macedo told Lusa.
The demonstration was stopped by the police, as it was not authorised, and several activists and a journalist were arrested at the meeting place, the Santa Ana cemetery.
The officers also tried to force the Portuguese journalists who were covering the case, who were properly identified, to get into the police van and hand over the photographic material, which did not happen due to the intervention of a graduate.
The Executive Secretariat of the Permanent Commission of the National Committee of JURA, a UNITA youth organisation, condemned “the brutal police repression” that accused them of receiving “political orders” and acting “in an authoritarian manner, arresting protesters and journalists, in a desperate attempt to silence the voice of the people.”
JURA stresses that this “act of repression clearly represents a violation of fundamental rights and a direct affront to democracy and freedom in Angola” and demands the “immediate release of those detained and accountability of the perpetrators of this shameful operation”.
In a post on Facebook, the president of the Democratic Bloc (BD), Filomeno Vieira Lopes, said that he spoke this afternoon with the president of the National Assembly, Carolina Cerqueira, about “the arrests and other serious events surrounding the demonstration.” She responded by contacting the Minister of the Interior, Eugénio Laborinho, to clarify the situation.
According to Filomeno Vieira Lopes, MP Olívio Nkilumbo was “distracted” by the police when he wanted to know what was happening at the protest site.
The national police have not yet revealed the number of those arrested.
Source: Observadora
