Luaty Beirao. RTP caption. All rights reserved.
On the 20th of June, fifteen Angolan activists were arrested in Luanda accused of attempting to disrupt public order and security. Seventeen activists were formally indicted (two of them were placed under provisional liberty, Laurinda Gouveia and Rosa Conde) of planning a coup d’état to remove the President of Angola from power.
According to the attorney general, General Joao Maria de Sousa, these acts constituted “a crime against the security of the state, and in consequence, a crime of rebellion”. From his words, one might think that the activists were distributing weapons or plotting a violent revolution. Far from it. They were exchanging opinions over two books, seemingly now a forbidden activity in Angola.
