Billboard showing portraits of the victims of an attack on the bus carrying the Togo national football team.
Today, four persons incarcerated in Angola were released from prison following a decision by the Attorney General their conviction was based on outdated legislation. Francisco Luemba, a lawyer, Raul Tati, a Catholic priest, and two others were convicted in August under a 1978 statute of the crime of “other acts against the security of the state” over an attack on the Togo national soccer team in the Cabinda region of Angola. Amnesty International declared them prisoners of conscience.
Luemba and Tati were members of the now banned human rights organization Mpalabanda and for many years publicly criticized the Angolan government and the Front for the Liberation of the Cabinda State FLEC – an armed group fighting for secession of Cabinda. FLEC claimed responsibility for the attack on the Togo national soccer team. Cabinda is a sliver of land between the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo. The region is internationally recognized as part of Angola and produces a substantial part of the country’s oil exports.
“Cabinda’s public prosecutor confirmed that the men have now been released and reunited with their families.”
Amnesty USA called on activists since August to take action to secure these men’s release as Amnesty believed their conviction was based on both an unfair trial and legislation violative of international human rights norms. You took up the candle and passed it along. Thanks to your efforts, these men are free today. Once again, Amnesty activists, YOU ROCK!!
