Lawyer and activist imprisoned without trial

Human rights lawyer, Arão Bula Tempo and human rights activist, José Marcos Mavungo, were arrested on the morning of 14 March by Angolan security forces in the province of Cabinda, Angola. Accused of threatening state security, they have been imprisoned without trial and denied access to medical care.

Arão Bula Tempo, a human rights lawyer and the president of the Provincial Council of the Angolan Bar Association in Cabinda, was arrested by security forces in Cabinda near the border Angola shares with Congo Brazzaville. Tempo suffers from chronic arterial hypertension and he was arrested on his way to the doctor for his regular check-up. A week before his arrest, on 6 March, he had delivered his inaugural speech stressing the need for the independence of lawyers in Cabinda and other parts of Angola.

José Marcos Mavungo, a human rights activist, was arrested at a Church compound as he was to attend the regular morning mass. At the time of his arrest, Mavungo was involved in organizing a peaceful demonstration to protest against what he and his fellow protesters considered as corruption and bad governance in Cabinda. The demonstration had been planned to take place on the same day he was arrested, 14 March.

Both Tempo and Mavungo are being held in a stuffy and humid cell infested with mosquitoes. There is no clean air in the cell as a result of poor ventilation. While in prison, Tempo’s arterial hypertension has deteriorated and he has also contacted malaria. Medical doctors are not allowed in to provide medical care. No one, including family members, is allowed to bring Tempo his blood pressure medication.  According to their lawyer, their health continues to deteriorate.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Dissent is frequently dealt with repressively, and often violently, by the Angolan authorities. Amnesty International has documented how the freedom of expression and peaceful assembly have been unlawfully restricted in Angola in its report Punishing Dissent: Suppression of Freedom of Association and Assembly in Angola (Index AFR 12/004/2014).
Some of those who have challenged the government of President José Eduardo dos Santos have been subjected to extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention and torture. Despite freedom of expression and peaceful assembly being clearly enshrined in the country’s constitution and in several international laws that Angola has signed and ratified, violations of these rights continue to occur.

Names: Arão Bula Tempo, José Marcos Mavungo