“These are still arbitrary arrests, because you cannot prevent them that way, because people went to exercise this right and simply arrested people; deprive them of their freedoms and it is clearly arbitrary detention to the point that we consider it to be false imprisonment, at the will of certain people, which goes against the principles of a democratic State”, said the lawyer today.
Speaking to Lusa, Zola Bambi said that the police arrested 12 activists on Saturday while they were gathering at Largo do Mercado de São Paulo and adjacent streets to hold a demonstration that was due to continue to Largo da Maianga, in the centre of the capital.
The lawyer lamented that the activists remain detained without any specific charges, calling for their release, fearing that on Monday “evidence could be fabricated to incriminate them.”
Zola Bambi stressed that the activists were only preparing the demonstration, which had been previously communicated to the authorities.
For the lawyer, also coordinator of the Observatory for Social Cohesion and Justice (OCSJ), the protesters should have been released on Saturday, out of respect for the law, the Constitution and the international commitments that Angola has assumed in the field of human rights.
"The police moved forward into the area and, as [the protesters] arrived, they managed to focus on the most influential people," he said. So "that was arresting without any justification, it was really restricting the rights of citizens", he highlighted.
“So, we hope that tomorrow [Monday] they will be sent home, because there is nothing that can lead us to the conviction that they violated any rule”, concludes the OCSJ’s leading lawyer.
Police dispersed the demonstration against hunger, poverty and unemployment, which was scheduled for this Saturday in Luanda, with tear gas shots and “several arrests”, some activists told Lusa.
More than 50 activists gathered on Saturday morning at the São Paulo Market square in Luanda, where the protest march against the high cost of living in the country was due to depart, but the demonstration was “stopped” by police officers before it even began.
According to activist Pascoal Figueira, four national police patrols were already lined up at the scene, who initially, as he stated, threatened the protesters, then proceeded to attack and detain them.
Alerting authorities to the need to reduce the basic food basket and improve citizens' living conditions was one of the purposes of the demonstration, called by the so-called National Unity for Total Revolution in Angola (UNTRA), whose leader is also among those detained.
Lusa has been waiting since Saturday for a statement from the Luanda Provincial Command of the National Police about the events.
