Share & more
The public were ordered to leave a Luanda courtroom on Tuesday half-an-hour after the start of proceedings against a prominent Angolan journalist charged with defaming President Jose Eduardo dos Santos.
The trial of Rafael Marques, Angolan representative of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa who works for the newspaper ‘Folha 8’, will resume on Thursday, according to human rights groups monitoring the case.
“After 30 minutes, Judge Joaquim de Abreu Cangato excluded the public from the courtroom,” the New York-based the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in a statement on Tuesday. “Officials from the US and Portuguese embassies, several human rights activists, and journalists were among those in attendance until they were all forced to leave.”
It said the proceedings continued all day in secrecy. Marques, 28, and two co-defendants have been charged with criminal defamation in connection with published articles critical of the president.
The case has been closely followed by the CPJ, Amnesty International, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) and other rights groups. If convicted, Marques faces from two to eight years in prison.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions