"A year in prison for the simple fact of peacefully protesting is a travesty of justice. The Angolan authorities must release these activists now, especially given their worsening medical conditions," said Vongai Chikwanda, Amnesty International's Deputy Director for East and Southern Africa.
Police detained the four activists on 16 September 2023 in Luanda, ahead of a planned protest in solidarity with motorcycle taxi drivers. Since then, AI has documented significant declines in their health, "in a context where the authorities deliberately deny them medical care in several different prisons (...)", AI accuses in the statement released this Monday.
"Deliberately denying medical care to people in prison is torture. Denying health care to prisoners also has potentially fatal consequences and may violate the right to life", said Chikwanda.
According to AI, there is a proven pattern of denial of care to at least three of the four activists detained.
Adolfo Campos, leader of the Angolan Revolutionary Movement, entered prison in good health, but over the past year he has gradually lost much of his vision and is now completely deaf in his left ear.
Another example is Hermenegildo Victor José, known as Gildo das Ruas, a member of the Malangina Resistance Movement, who also had no health problems before being imprisoned. In June, he began complaining of fevers and body aches, but prison authorities only allowed him to see a doctor on 1 August.
According to AI, Gilson Moreira, known as Tanaice Neutro, is a musician and frequent critic of the government who has suffered more than two years of denial of medical care by prison authorities.
In January 2022, police arrested Tanaice after he allegedly called the President, João Lourenço, a "clown". At the time, Tanaice was suffering from a serious illness and had surgery scheduled abroad. Prison authorities did not authorise the operation.
Only the fourth activist, Abraão Pedro Santos, known as Pensador, has not yet suffered a significant deterioration in his health in prison. Pensador is a member of the Civil Society Contestants Movement and a leader of the Black Panther Revolutionary Movement.
However, prison guards have refused medical care to another dissident, influencer Ana da Silva Miguel, known as Neth Nahara. Police detained Neth in a separate case in August 2023 after she criticised the President in a live video on the social media platform TikTok.
Neth publicly revealed that she is HIV-positive in 2020, but authorities prevented her from accessing her daily HIV medication for months, leading to an emergency hospitalisation on 3 December 2023.
According to Amnesty International, this is a worrying pattern of withholding medical care by Angolan authorities as a way of punishing peaceful dissent.
"The authorities must immediately release the detained activists and allow everyone in the country to freely exercise their human rights, as guaranteed by the Angolan Constitution and international human rights obligations," said Vongai Chikwanda.
