Over 500 Angolan lawyers have stepped up to defend citizens detained following a recent rash of riots across the country.
After nearly a month of largely peaceful protests over a major price hike on diesel, a strike by the Angolan taxi association ANATA quickly devolved into riots as frustrated citizens faced an aggressive police response. Some 1,500 people, including children, were detained in connection to the rioting and at least 240 have been tried in recent days, reports the Portuguese news agency Lusa.
Such an influx of cases, Angolan Bar Association leader José Luís Domingos told Lusa, has created “serious constraints” on the judicial system and the absence of lawyers at some hearings could undermine access to justice and presumption of innocence. To ensure these trials are “as fair as possible,” the OAA mobilised more than 500 lawyers across the country to represent more than 1,200 people still in detention.
Domingos expressed concern over the treatment of minors, who may be “subject to coercive procedural measures, questioning or even trial” despite not being criminally responsible.
[See more: Diesel price hikes have sparked deadly riots in Angola]
The association is also drawing attention to the extreme social and economic vulnerability that drove many to protest, arguing that even with serious offences, penalties should emphasise rehabilitation and work training over incarceration. “This is an opportunity to rethink the state’s approach to the social crisis,” Domingos noted. “The causes of the protests have not disappeared, and repression cannot replace dialogue and inclusion.”
Meanwhile, four Angolan civil society groups are calling on the government to launch an impartial and independent investigation into the at least 28 civilian deaths during the riots. During a press conference broadcast live on Facebook, representatives expressed “deep concern and indignation” over the deadly clashes with police. The Angolan National Police denies any orders to shoot to kill, a spokesperson telling Rádio Essencial that the situation was “out of control” and “officers had to resort to other means because non-lethal means were ineffective,” blaming citizens’ actions for causing the deaths.
Witness accounts, reports local online news outlet Hold On, challenge that explanation, claiming several of the civilian victims were executed at point-blank range, including a woman shot in the back while fleeing. According to the civil society organisations, although the original strike was marred by acts of vandalism and looting, “nothing justifies the disproportionate and violent police response, marked by abuse of authority and excessive use of force”.
