In Angola, there are almost 3,000 cases of excessive pre-trial detention and 6,000 without certificates for sentencing, a “serious issue”, recognized this Monday by the Special Commission that analyzes these cases and whose actions are aimed at reducing them.
“Yes, this is actually a serious question. It is for this reason that this commission was created, precisely because it recognized the existence of the phenomenon of excessive preventive detention throughout the country and one of the ways to mitigate it is precisely the creation of a working group,” Alves Renne, secretary of the Special Commission for the Analysis of Excessive Preventive Detention, told reporters.
Created in December 2020, the commission chaired by Judge Advisor to the President of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court, Daniel Modesto Geraldez, this Monday summed up the work for 2023 and determined the work strategy for 2024.
Speaking to journalists following a meeting held in Luanda, Alves Renne explained that the commission technically processes the data provided by the prison service and, depending on the nature or stage at which it is discovered, the case is processed. on business.
The commission’s actions contributed to a reduction in the figures presented, he added, although he did not specify the results of visits to prison services by each commission member.
“Because the defendants claim to have exceeded the pretrial detention period, or for some other reason, they believe that they have exceeded the pretrial detention period, but technically we see that sometimes these are other cases, these are the defendants against whom several cases are pending,” – he explained.
When asked about the results of the work carried out by the commission since 2020, the person in charge noted that at the level of the Angolan prison service there are no longer cases of deprivation of liberty of defendants after serving their sentences.
“We can say with some confidence that there are no more such cases,” he assured.
Regarding over-detention cases specifically, “one could say that the balance is overwhelmingly positive, not only because of the existence of the commission that does this technical work of cleaning up the data, but also because of the impact it has on the prisoners themselves,” concluded Alves Renne.
The Secretary of the Special Commission said that it is working to stop excessive preventive detention in the country, a “distortion of the system”, situations that arise “when for some reason, and they vary, defendants who must remain within the established the limits set by law end up staying longer.”
The data is transmitted to the commission by the prison service, which is the body that obliges the accused to comply with precautions, the data “is then technically processed by the commission, which, depending on the nature or stage of the process, checks the possibility of debugging in each specific case,” he explained.
The commission includes representatives of the Attorney General’s Office, the Angolan Bar Association, the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, the Office of the Ombudsman and the Prison Services.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
I am Michael Melvin, an experienced news writer with a passion for uncovering stories and bringing them to the public. I have been working in the news industry for over five years now, and my work has been published on multiple websites. As an author at 24 News Reporters, I cover world section of current events stories that are both informative and captivating to read.