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Defense

Constitutional Court gives Higino Carneiro reason and annuls coercive measures

The Constitutional Court (TC) found that the former Minister Higino Carneiro was right and declared the personal coercion measures imposed on him extinct, considering that the Supreme Court violated "the principle of legality".

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Higino Carneiro, a general considered close to former President José Eduardo dos Santos and MPLA deputy, who was also Minister of Public Works and is accused in a case related to suspicions of mismanagement during his time as governor of Luanda province.

In the ruling, relating to an extraordinary appeal of unconstitutionality filed by the politician, who was denied a 'habeas corpus' by the 3rd section of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court, the eleven judges grant the appeal and declare the previous decision unconstitutional.

On 5 September 2019, Higino Carneiro requested the Supreme Court to lift the measures of personal coercion - periodic submission to the authorities, prohibition to leave the country and termination of identity and residence - as he considered them illegal, in view of his status as a member of the National Assembly, and more than six months had elapsed without being notified of any formal charge, claiming to have been charged without ever having been notified.

In the Constitutional Court's assessment, although the coercive measures imposed on him were not the same as those of imprisonment or detention, they also 'curtailed the freedom of movement' of the appellant, who, although carrying out his mandate, is constrained in his rights as a citizen.

The ECA judges also point out that the legal time-limits for the duration of the precautionary measures have not been complied with.

"Irrespective of any extensions, the maximum periods have all been largely exhausted, which means that the coercive measures applied have been extinguished", the judgment highlights, adding that although less coercive measures are not typically included in the grounds justifying the imposition of a 'habeas corpus', the case-law of the TC accepts that any abusive restriction of individual freedom may be the subject of a 'habeas corpus'.

The TC therefore considered that the Supreme Court, in rejecting Higino Carneiro's request at a time when the legal time limits on the duration of the coercive measures had already expired, "violated the principles of constitutionality and legality".

The counsellor judges rejected, however, the argument of violation of the principle of presumption of innocence, considering that Higino Carneiro "was never treated as guilty, but always as suspected of committing some criminal offences.

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