Cabinda activist freed in Angola

2010-11-25 07:43

Luanda - An activist held in the tiny oil-rich Angolan province of Cabinda has been freed after serving seven months in prison, a lawyer said on Wednesday.

Antonio Paca Panzo was freed on Tuesday afternoon for lack of evidence, said Arao Tempo.

He was arrested in April in possession of T-shirts showing the faces of four people arrested in January over the attack earlier that month on a bus carrying Togo's football team to the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola. Two people died in the attack.

The Angolan rebels who claimed responsibility for the deadly shooting later denounced the jailing of the four in August for between three and six years, saying they had no links to the insurgency.

Lisa Rimli, of the New York-based Human Rights Watch welcomed Panzo's release.

But she added: "We should not forget that Antonio Paca Panzo spent a long time in jail and he probably lost his job."

Such arrests had a "huge impact" on the lives of those involved and an "intimidating impact on the whole society", she added.

Cabinda, separated from Angola by a strip of the Democratic Republic of Congo, has been troubled by separatist violence for more than 30 years.

- SAPA