José Luís Domingos regretted that there are non-criminal judges in the country carrying out interrogations and applying personal coercive measures, such as family, labor and other jurisdictions judges carrying out functions constitutionally reserved for guarantee judges.
"One of the fundamental guarantees for the realization of rights is the specialization of judges, we realize that it is necessary to increase the number of judges, but it seems almost unacceptable for judges who are in other jurisdictions to go through guarantee judges", he said.
For the president of the OAA, this situation puts at risk "the dignity of the detainees and calls into question the purpose of the implementation of the same [judges of guarantee]".
In the session in which this Thursday marked the first year of the entry into office of the guarantee judges in the country, he argued that the guarantee judge "has to be an effective judge and not a mere collaborator of the system of the accuser and the Ministry Public".
"On the contrary, it should be a kind of counterpoint to the Public Prosecutor's Office", he observed, highlighting that the Angolan criminal procedural model adopted by the constituent legislator manifests "a clear political option for a criminal procedural system with an accusatory matrix".
At least 158 guarantee judges took office in the country on May 2, 2023, aiming to defend the fundamental rights of citizens, deciding on issues such as preventive or house arrest.
In José Luís Domingos' opinion, one year after the implementation of the guarantee judge, this figure has not yet addressed the weaknesses that existed in the procedural system that justified its application.
And in many cases, he argued, "it has contributed to the worsening of the fragility of the situation of detainees and defendants in Angola".
"However, this finding does not invalidate the merit of its implementation, on the contrary, it must require from all of us justice operators and not just an urgent attitude that involves identifying obstacles that insist on transforming the judge's guarantees into problems", he noted.
