Pro Bono Angola (Association for the Good of Angola), in a protest note sent to the General Commander of the Angolan National Police, which Lusa had access to this Tuesday, expresses "vehement repudiation" of the police's actions and states that they were not in harmony with the principles of the democratic rule of law.
"[The police's stance] blatantly violated the duty to act in accordance with the Constitution and the law", says the NGO, recalling that the right to assembly and demonstration and the right of journalists to information are part of the catalogue of fundamental rights established in the Angolan Constitution.
Dozens of students were arrested on Saturday in Luanda by the national police when they were protesting for better conditions in public schools, demanding desks, teachers and teaching materials. Most of them were released hours later, and eight were acquitted by the court on Monday.
Police officers also detained three journalists who were covering the demonstration, called by the Angolan Student Movement (MEA), who complained of threats, an action already condemned by the Angolan Journalists' Union and international organizations such as the Committee for the Protection of Journalists.
Pro Bono Angola, an organization dedicated to the defense of human rights and the democratic rule of law, notes, on the other hand, that the fundamental rights enshrined in the Angolan Constitution "do not require any authorization for their exercise".
For the NGO, the detention of protesters and journalists by the national police, "outside the Constitution and the law", is considered abusive and disproportionate, in light of the international conventions on human rights to which Angola is a party.
"The actions of the national police require a strong response from the Ministry of the Interior with a view to restoring legality, as the body to which the Constitution entrusts the duty of defending democratic legality and the interests determined by law", states the note signed by the organization's president, Bartolomeu Milton.
The human rights association also urges the national police to act in accordance with the Constitution and the law and "demands" that its officers be held accountable for violating the country's rules, in order to make the police a "truly republican" body.
