According to the order of the Luanda District Court, made public this Tuesday, the 33 "dissident" pastors and workers from the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (IURD) in Angola, detained on Sunday after protests against the reopening of temples under the new leadership, would be summarily tried on Monday.
The detainees were accused of disrupting religious worship, participating in a riot, disobeying the dispersal order and serious harm to physical integrity, but the court decided to release the defendants under terms of identity and residence as it understood that the aforementioned crimes could not be subject to summary judgment because they do not have a maximum prison sentence of three years. Furthermore, there was no evidence in the records of a medical-forensic examination that would justify the crime of harm to physical integrity.
"For the reasons explained above, it is concluded that the summary process is not appropriate for this situation, and the records must be sent to the MP for subsequent processes in the legally required manner", reads the order.
To Lusa, jurist Hermenegildo Teotónio explained that the court understood that there were grounds for instructing the summary process, which is why it decided to maintain the measure of procedural coercion for the defendants (term of identity and residence).
The jurist also explained that the court decided to return the case to the MP so that he could remedy "the detected irregularities", within eight days, under penalty of the case being null and void.
The Angolan wing of the IURD, which contests the new name of the church, denounced on Monday the "illegal" detention of more than 40 pastors and workers after clashes with faithful from the Brazilian wing, on Sunday, after the reopening of the temples.
