"As for the issue of corruption in the Angolan judicial system, it was not the subject of our discussion, in any case, in legal science there is a presumption of innocence and, therefore, until we have a trial and a conviction, we cannot be anticipate sentences or trials in the public square", said this Thursday the spokesman for CEAST, Belmiro Chissengueti, in response to journalists.
The Catholic bishop who was speaking at a press conference added: "We leave that to the competent institutions to do their job and then we can have opinions when we are faced with data. As we know, until there is a judgment, everything else is speculation."
Belmiro Chissengueti was speaking at the closing press conference of the 1st Annual Plenary Assembly of the Episcopal Conference of Angola and São Tomé (CEAST), which took place between 9 and 16 February, in Luanda.
Complaints about the alleged involvement of the judge president of the TS, Joel Leonardo, in acts of corruption, mismanagement and nepotism and others appear weekly on social networks and on various news portals, without, however, any reaction from that judicial body.
The matter, which has already received a reaction from the Association of Judges of Angola (AJA), was raised this Thursday to the Angolan Catholic bishops in this press conference.
The AJA urged the Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSMJ) to activate internal mechanisms to investigate as soon as possible complaints that clash "flagrantly with the ethics and integrity required of judicial magistrates".
In a public note, which the Lusa agency had access to on Monday, AJA underlines that it is with concern that it follows the publication of different news on the judiciary and on judicial magistrates, "being that, most of which, associate the name of the presiding judge of the TS and, by virtue of their functions, the president of the CSMJ, in alleged practices and/or conduct that, if proven, flagrantly clash with the ethics and integrity required of judicial magistrates".
According to the note, the AJA cannot remain indifferent to the aforementioned news, "not only due to the need to safeguard credibility in the judicial system, but also to ensure that the existing legal mechanisms within the judicial power and State institutions with attributions for the necessary investigation, do not omit themselves from their legal attributions, so that the facts are clarified, the truth is restored".
The association considers that it is necessary to safeguard "the image and credibility of the courts, greatly affected by the aforementioned news, as well as the image and good name of the judicial magistrates who saw their names involved in the news and who are presumed innocent".
The AJA calls for scrupulous transparency, respect for the presumption of innocence and the right to information, in investigations, avoiding "all judgments and early convictions, which depreciate and discredit the judicial power".
Jurist Sebastião Fernando told Lusa that Angolan justice "is in the mud", due to the constant accusations attributed to the president of the Supreme Court, defending that he be the first to clarify "rumors" for "accountability" of those involved.
Last week, the president of the Association of Public Prosecution Magistrates, Adelino Fançony, denounced interference in the work of magistrates in delicate cases, the consequences of which, when requests are not met, could jeopardize their careers, not ascending to higher categories of the judiciary.
