In a note sent to Lusa, Fernando Macedo says that the precautionary procedure was filed in the court on January 14 and aims to lift the prohibition of "gatherings, of any nature, exceeding 10 (ten) people on the public road" resulting from the prevention and combating covid-19 provided for in Presidential Decree No. 10/21, of 8 January.
In recent months, Luanda has been the scene of several demonstrations that have been severely repressed by the police, based on compliance with the decree, resulting in the arrest of activists and journalists, subsequently released, and at least one confirmed death, of the young Inocêncio de Matos , in circumstances yet to be clarified.
"Citizen Fernando Macedo is in solidarity with the administration of João Lourenço with regard to measures to combat the new coronavirus, as long as they are in accordance with the Constitution and the law. However, he understands that the President of the Republic, as he assumed in the inauguration speech of his presidency, he must be among those who respect the Constitution and the just laws of the Republic ", he underlines, in the note sent to Lusa.
The document points out that the Civil Protection Law prohibits the administration from limiting or suspending citizens' rights, freedoms and guarantees by means of a Declaration of Public Calamity, with the result that the regulatory legal rule decreed by the President of the Republic, which limits meetings and demonstrations on the public road to 10 people, "unequivocally, it is null".
In this sense, the ban "must be suspended until the main action is decided by the Supreme Court of Angola, confirming the defect of illegality".
Fernando Macedo stresses that this is also a test of the "discredit" of the judicial system in Angola.
"Most likely, the precautionary procedure initiated against the illegal limitation of the freedom of assembly and demonstration, will increase the statistics of decisions taken or not taken by Angolan courts, contrary to the letter and spirit of the Constitution and the laws", stresses.
According to Fernando Macedo, if the Court does not decide this case quickly, it will be omitting that the freedoms of assembly and demonstration are "being attacked", because the President of the Republic uses a Statement of Situation of Public Disaster to limit or suspend citizens' rights, freedoms and guarantees, when it could only do so through a Declaration of State of Emergency.
