Nearly 200 people convicted in Angola a year ago after unfair trials are still imprisoned and waiting for their appeals to be heard, Human Rights Watch said today.
On July 30, 2024, the Saurimo District Court in Lunda Sul province found 198 defendants guilty for their alleged participation in protests in support of regional autonomy in the country's eastern provinces. The court sentenced them to between four and eight years in prison plus fines.
"The Angolan authorities should respect the internationally protected right to a fair trial and ensure that defendants' rights are protected," said Ashwanee Budoo-Scholtz, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "The serious irregularities in the trial process and the unnecessary delay in hearing the appeals indicate that the government is using its institutions to suppress dissent."
Human Rights Watch, in June and July 2025, remotely interviewed 20 people from the provinces of Lunda Sul, Lunda Norte, Moxico, and Cuando Cubango, including lawyers, community leaders, protest participants, human rights defenders, journalists, and a member of parliament.
In October 2023, the Lunda Tchokwe Protectorate Movement, which advocates political autonomy for eastern Angola, held largely peaceful protests in four cities in Lunda Norte (north) and Lunda Sul (south) provinces. During and after the protests, Angolan police responded with excessive force, including tear gas and beatings, and arrested dozens of participants and bystanders.
A mass trial took place in July 2024. Despite the generally peaceful demonstrations, the authorities charged the defendants with rebellion, criminal association, disobeying orders to disperse, participation in riots, and damage to public property. The court found that the defendants had disobeyed police orders to disperse and threw stones, bottles, and sticks at the police, which injured three police officers and damaged several vehicles.
The trial did not meet basic due process or fair trial standards, Human Rights Watch said. A lawyer attending the trials said that defendants did not have access to legal counsel of their choice and some were forced to accept court-appointed lawyers. The trial was held in a makeshift courtroom inside the Luzi district prison center and was closed to the public and journalists.
Several protest participants and bystanders told Human Rights Watch that only after some unidentified individuals joined the peaceful protests and the police reacted with violence, did the course of the protest change.
The lawyer attending the trials said that for one province, there was "only [one] lawyer representing more than 140 detainees in that province" and that "all others were forced to accept lawyers they didn't even know, who did not fight for their release." He said that these lawyers "simply went along with whatever the public prosecutor and the judge imposed."
A lawyer involved in the cases said that "there are still some protesters arrested since 2023 who have not been tried or sentenced. That alone is a gross abuse of pretrial detention. The arrests did not follow legal procedures, and the ongoing detentions are excessive." Article 67 of the Angolan Constitution guarantees all defendants the right to a defense, to appeal, and to have legal representation. Angola is also a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, both of which guarantee the right to due process, including legal counsel of their choosing, and to a fair trial.
Human Rights Watch has previously documented several instances in which Angolan police used excessive force against peaceful protesters. The local human rights organization Movimento Mudei also found a consistent pattern of arbitrary arrests, prolonged pretrial detention, and trials of the defendants that fell far short of Angola's constitutional provisions and international legal standards.
"The Angolan authorities should abide by Angola's international legal obligations and end the security forces' use of excessive force against demonstrators," Budoo-Scholtz said. "For people who were wrongfully charged and convicted, the authorities should quash their cases and ensure their immediate release from prison."
