Some prison transport vans arrived at the courthouse, it was not yet 11am, and the inmates they were transporting were greeted with cries of "Freedom, now!" as they left the vehicles.
On the outside of the court, vuvuzelas and criticism of the President, João Lourenço, and the Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA) are heard, while the young demonstrators are watched by the vigilant gaze of the officers who form the police cordon that bars the entrance to the court.
Besides friends and family of the detainees, there are also colleagues of the journalists of Radio Essencial, who were arrested on Saturday and are expected to appear at the court this Monday.
In a statement to the journalists, the editor of Essential Radio, Edno Pimentel, said that he spoke with his colleagues arrested on Saturday, who reported having been "assaulted".
The editor added that the three journalists and the driver who formed the radio team covering the Saturday rally have been unnoticed since shortly after the arrest, admitting that they have not been released until now as a strategy to "disguise the after-effects of the assaults.
Edno Pimentel said that the police have given no justification as to why they were arrested and why the radio team is still being held.
The head of Radio Essencial said that no lawyer has yet been appointed to defend the journalists, "because there is no formal process", but added that the arrest did not come as a "complete surprise" because "a lot has been happening for Angola".
A demonstration last Saturday in Luanda resulted in the arrest of 103 people, including leaders of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), according to the Secretary of State of the Interior Ministry, Salvador Rodrigues, who denied the existence of any death resulting from the event promoted by civil society activists, with support from the largest opposition party.
According to the governor, 90 men and 13 women are being detained. Six police officers were injured in clashes between the police cordon and the demonstrators, according to Salvador Rodrigues.
"Unfortunately, there are leaders of political parties [...] arrested who were in the demonstration," the governor also specified, indicating that they are linked to UNITA.
The head of the Interior Ministry said that there was arson, that means of the public force were burned, stressing that "the force of order was there to enforce the decree.
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.
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 activist Dito Dali, one of the participants in Saturday's rally in Luanda, told Lusa that there are more than a hundred people arrested and one person will have died during the protest, but this information was not officially confirmed.
Some journalists were assaulted and forced to erase the images relating to the coverage of the demonstration.
Three non-governmental organizations - UFOLO, Amigos de Angola and Mãos Livres - condemned the violence against the demonstrators and demanded the release of the journalists.
