Laurindo Fonseca, one of the 15 lawyers representing the hundred demonstrators whose trial is due to begin this Tuesday, said that all the detainees were tested before collecting them from their cells on Saturday, but the results were only received on Monday, with two positive cases.
"One of the defendants has tested positive and has been evacuated," but he is still in custody and will still be tried.
The whereabouts of the other person are unknown. "We think he may be one of the journalists who were arrested and meanwhile released, who are not part of this process, but we are not sure", admitted Laurindo Fonseca.
The lawyer stressed that the defendants have been together in the cells and that their representatives have already taken steps so that the court "can create conditions to continue the process".
Among the 104 defendants, seven are under 18 years of age: six are considered guilty because they are between 16 and 17 years of age, and one, 15 years old, who is not subject to the law, was released on Monday and will answer in a juvenile court.
The defendants are accused of disobeying Presidential Decree 276/20 of 23 October, with more restrictive measures in the field of covid-19 prevention, including a ban on public gatherings of more than five people, four voluntary bodily harm offences and two crimes of voluntary damage to National Police property.
On Monday, the defendants were in court but were not heard, and the day was occupied with the discussion of previous issues.
"The distribution of the defendants among the lawyers was discussed, as well as issues related to correcting identities and minors among the detainees, as well as the unconstitutionality of some rules of the presidential decree," said Laurindo Fonseca.
Asked about the line that will follow the defense of the defendants, Laurindo Fonseca pointed out that the Public Ministry will have to prove that they were the authors of the crimes, since the criminal responsibility is individual.
"They will have to prove that each of the 104, now 103, accused will have participated in each of these crimes, otherwise they will have to be released," he said.
As this is a summary case, Laurindo Fonseca stated that the defendants will have to be judged and know the court's decision within a maximum of eight days.
The defendants are already in the cells of the provincial court in Luanda, but the trial has no time to begin: "everything will depend on the sanitary conditions," said the lawyer.
On Friday, the government issued new measures to combat and prevent covid-19, in a decree on the State of Public Calamity, which among several restrictions, prohibited street gatherings of more than five people.
The following day, a demonstration in Luanda resulted in the arrest of more than 100 people, including leaders of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), civil society activists and journalists.
The Secretary of State of the Interior Ministry, Salvador Rodrigues, who denied the existence of any death resulting from the event, also said that six police officers were injured following clashes between the police cordon and the demonstrators.
According to the governor, the forces of order were received with violence, "stoning, burning of tires on the road", having burned a motorcycle of the public force, a car of the firemen, an ambulance that was left with broken glass and a car of the traffic unit.
The governor of Luanda, Joana Lina, classified the march as an "act of vandalism".
Several non-governmental organizations have meanwhile condemned the violence against the demonstrators and the attacks on the freedom of the press, due to the arrest and aggression of journalists who were forced to erase images from their cameras.
On Monday, the arrival of the detainees at the Luanda Provincial Court was greeted with cries of "Liberdade, Já" by several dozen young people who gathered in front of the building throughout the day and only demobilized at the beginning of the night, leading to some moments of tension with the police.
