Speaking to the press, the spokesperson for the Criminal Investigation Service (SIC) Manuel Halaiwa said that the group led by João Gabriel Deussinho, 34, who calls himself president of the revolutionary movement Frente Unida de Reedificação da Ordem Africana (FUROA), intended to overthrow the Angolan government and establish a new regime.
Among those arrested are also a National Police officer and an employee of the Ministry of Justice.
The SIC spokesperson said that the organisation with international links, which emerged in 2017 in Huambo province, began to be monitored in October and intended to carry out terrorist acts to destabilise the country's political and social order, creating panic during the official visit of former US President Joe Biden, who visited Angola at the end of last year.
"Evidence of the existence of an alleged subversive organisation of Angolan origin with probable branches outside the country" was identified, he said.
During the investigation, which included national and international intelligence agencies and the Angolan Armed Forces, "a strategy" was identified to target some institutions and also strategic objectives of the State, in the provinces of Luanda and Huambo.
The explosive devices that would be used in the terrorist attacks included hand grenades of Russian, German, British and Portuguese origin and do not belong to the arsenal of the Angolan Armed Forces, suggesting that they were acquired clandestinely", indicated the same official.
The targets include fuel tanks, the Presidential Palace, the National Assembly, the Embassy of the United States of America, an electrical substation, the headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Service and the Intercontinental Hotel.
"All of this would then be carried out at the first moment of the visit (by Joe Biden) that was scheduled for the months of October. Therefore, these individuals verified these objectives and intended to achieve the objectives of causing panic, both from a social and political point of view and (...) directly affecting, with physical aggression, the high-ranking authorities", that is, the former US president and President João Lourenço.
The detainees are accused of crimes such as criminal association, trafficking, possession and alteration of prohibited weapons and ammunition, possession of explosive, toxic and asphyxiating substances, with the leader having been arrested when he was trying to flee to Namibia with his family.
"It was also determined that this individual was linked to a source of financing, of several individuals and legal entities, who financed him through a bank account" of his mother-in-law, said Manuel Halaiwa.
The funds were used to cover his travel expenses within the country, but also for the travel abroad of the leader of the movement "which is inspired by some acts of coup d'état carried out in some countries", such as Burkina Faso, and also established contacts with the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC).
"The intention was, in fact, to annihilate the Angolan State, that is, to remove the party that currently governs Angola, in this case the MPLA, by force of arms", stressed the SIC spokesperson.
