The civic organizations Friends of Angola (FoA) and Handeka sent a complaint to the president of the Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSMJ) against judge Maria Vangui Pascoal who, on September 19, 2023, sentenced four activists for crimes of disobedience and resistance.
Adolfo Campos, Gilson da Silva Moreira "Tanaice Neutro", Hermenegildo André "Gildo das Ruas" and Abraão dos Santos are the activists sentenced, at the time, after being detained following a demonstration in support of motorcycle taxi drivers in Luanda.
According to these non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the four were compulsorily and illegally detained and their trial at the Luanda District Provincial Court was "politically motivated".
"Even though not a single piece of evidence of violation of the crimes of which they were accused was produced, they were sentenced to effective imprisonment of two years and five months, leading us to infer from this an interference in the exercise of the judiciary that politicized the process", says in the document.
FoA and Handeka also consider that the activists "are unjustifiably deprived of freedom" because, they argue, "the Angolan Penal Code recommends that, for crimes or penalties with an abstract criminal framework of up to three years and with an alternative to a fine, the considered decision must essentially incur a fine".
For these civic organizations, maintaining the arrest of activists violates current national standards as well as international agreements and treaties signed by the Republic of Angola.
In this complaint sent to the president of the CSMJ of Angola, they point out "procedural errors" allegedly committed by judge Maria Vangui Pascoal during and after reading the ruling.
They accuse her of "office condemnation" of the activist Abraão dos Santos, due to the fact that the judge in the hearing room only dictated the sentence of three activists and, after an "untimely" exit from the room, informed of the activist's conviction via of a clerk.
They said that the file was never available at the registry office for consultation by the defense, filing of appeals and complaints and that it was only possible to appeal the decision on October 9, 2023, after "constant insistence" from the defense.
The judge is also accused of having acted in a "petulant and irreducible" manner for allegedly forcing the activists' defense to send a complaint for withholding an appeal to the presiding judge of the Luanda District Court, when they intended to send it to the Court of Appeal.
In order to begin "reversing the image and the heavy cloak of suspicion over our justice system", they observe, "we must not continue to show slowness with these types of procedural errors".
"For this reason, we are asking for the annulment of this absurd sentence, the release of the four activists unconditionally and the opening of a process to investigate the facts narrated here which, it is hoped, will culminate in the compulsory removal of a judge who dishonored the caste", defended the NGOs.
