Angolan activists announced this Monday that they would be holding a “peaceful and unarmed protest” in Luanda on Thursday to “demand” the release of the activist “Tanaise Neutro”, who has been waiting for an appeal for more than five months after being sentenced in the first case.
In a vigil statement sent to Lusa and already sent to the Luanda Provincial Government (GPL), subscribers, activists and members of civil society lament that Gilson da Silva Moreira “Tanais Neutro” was imprisoned for over a year and with “excessive pre-trial detention “.
The “silence and slowness” of the Court of Appeal (Court of Appeal) in response to the appeal filed by the Public Ministry (MP), which disagreed with the verdict of the first instance, they say, “are forms of injustice” .
As one of the reasons for the vigil, they point to the “exhaustion” of the one year and three months sentence to which he was sentenced by the Luanda Provincial Court, as he has been in detention since January 13, 2022. , scheduled for April 6, in the church of Largo da Sagrada Familia.
“Tanais Neutro”, considered a “political prisoner”, was sentenced on October 12, 2022 to a suspended prison sentence of one year and three months for the crime of insulting the state, its symbols and organs.
The verdict to the activist was read out by the judge in the case of Daniel Ferreira in the 1st section of the Luanda District Court, which upheld, as partially proven, the accusation of the deputy.
According to the court, it was proven that the 35-year-old activist “Tanaise Neutro” committed the crime of desecration of the state, its symbols and organs for calling the President of Angola “a bandit and a clown” and giving the name to the National Police officers, in videos that The activist recorded and shared on social networks.
However, the court suspended the execution of the imposed sentence for a period of two years, subject to the defendant’s withdrawal from the group of persons injured in the process and in the same way within 15 days.
The prosecutor’s office expressed dissatisfaction with the judge’s decision and filed an appeal to the Court of Appeal with a suspensive effect of the sentence, which means that “Tanaise Neutro” continues to be in custody pending a response to the appeal.
The organizers of the action also deplore the “deficient” state of health of “Tanaise Neutro” and remind that the activist suffering from hemorrhoids “needs an urgent operation”, stating that the prison administration “denies him any medical assistance”.
Francisco Muteca’s lawyer last January regretted the retention of Tanais Neutro’s pre-trial detention, believing that this period would be extended due to the number of cases pending before the Court of Appeal.
“The process has now gone up, with cases that are already in the Court of Appeal and being considered, which means that the same process can take three to six months, so the democratic criminal process recommends that the judge decide in favor of the defendant, with weight and flexibility,” Lusa previously pointed out.
In this regard, he also considered that keeping the activist under arrest “violates” the principles of the presumption of innocence, a fair trial and others relating to the dignity of the human person and strengthening the guarantees of the judicial process.
Vigil organizers say that in addition to the GPL, Luanda’s provincial national police command has also been briefed about the initiative, scheduled for 7:00 pm local time (same time in Lisbon) next Thursday.
DYAS // J
Lusa/The End
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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