In a press release released this Saturday, the Criminal Investigation Service (SIC) states that the detainees' criminal cases "were immediately presented to the Public Prosecutor's Office, which, in view of the gravity of the facts, applied corresponding personal coercive measures", specifying that some of the detainees remain in preventive detention.
The SIC indicates in the note that the arrests arose after "the Criminal Police bodies, within the scope of their competences, had developed a set of operational actions that made it possible to identify individuals who, individually or in groups, have been financing and promote the dissemination" of audios and videos to "sow insecurity, hatred and panic among the populations".
"The Angolan National Police (PNA) and the Criminal Investigation Services have been receiving several complaints and complaints about the dissemination of videos, audios and texts, through the various digital platforms, namely Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, with content that incites to violence, public apology for crime, rebellion and outrage against the State, its symbols and organs, facts foreseen and punishable in the current criminal law", refers in the note.
In the note, the Police and the SIC ask all citizens to collaborate to ensure public safety and reaffirm that "they will continue to be relentless in the fight against all criminal practices, therefore calling for the denunciation of such acts".
On Friday, two Angolan human rights organizations repudiated the "arbitrary persecution and detention" by the national police of activists in Angola and appealed to President João Lourenço to put an end to the abuses.
"FORDU and OMUNGA, organizations for the defense of human rights, make public their most serious concerns about the security framework of activists and the people in general", reads a joint statement, to which the Lusa agency had access.
The two organizations recall that all the bodies elected after the August 24 general elections are already functioning, so it is not understandable that the right to freedom of expression is being called into question.
In the statement, the two organizations expressed "unconditional support" for the demonstration called by the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) for this Saturday, in Luanda, asking the defense and security forces to protect the protesters, who are also asked to a "civic and decent" stance.
UNITA held a march on Saturday, one month after the elections, in defense of the democratic and lawful state and for the release of political prisoners.
