Africa Cup shooters on trial
2010-06-23 21:16
Luanda - Four Angolan human rights activists went on trial on Wednesday for "crimes against state security" over the deadly shooting attack on Togo's football team in January.
The shooting by separatist rebels in the oil-rich province of Cabinda killed two members of Togo's squad as they entered to compete in the Africa Cup of Nations.
Rights groups have accused the government of using the rebel attack to justify arrests of its critics.
Lawyer Francisco Luemba, university professor Belchior Lanso, Catholic priest Raul Tati and former police officer Jose Benjamin Fuca were arrested in the wake of the separatist attack.
After their initial hearing, the judge adjourned the trial for three weeks, giving time to rule on the defendants' complaint that the charges against them are unconstitutional.
"The judge adjourned the trial to July 12 to have time to make a ruling on the constitutionality of the charges," said Arao Tempo, lawyer for two of the accused.
Tempo told AFP by telephone that he was "confident, in the sense that they have committed no crime. And Angola has every interest to show the independence of its judiciary."
The four were arrested because they were in possession of documents about the separatist guerilla movement Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC), which claimed responsibility for the attack.
Pessimistic
They also fell under suspicion because they had travelled to Paris, trips Tempo said were meant to "find a consensus for peace in Cabinda" with exiled FLEC leaders.
Martinho Nombo, lawyer for another of the activists, was more pessimistic.
"There are many judgements that worry us," he told AFP.
Two weeks ago another of his clients, Andre Zeferino Puati, was sentenced to three years in prison for possessing documents calling for protests against the government.
A total of nine people were arrested in connection with the Togo attack, but only two of them have any direct link to the shooting, according to Human Rights Watch.
FLEC separatists have been fighting for Cabinda's independence for more than three decades, and despite a peace deal in 2006, continues to wage low-level attacks in the province that produces most of Angola's oil.
- SAPA