Prominent journalist tried in secret

Prosecution witnesses at the trial of a prominent Angolan journalist, Rafael Marques, this week told the court he had humiliated the government of President Eduardo dos Santos, tarnished the honour and dignity of the president himself, and demoralised the Angolan army in an article published last year.

In a case closely monitored by Amnesty International, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and other rights groups, Marques, the Angolan representative of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, was arrested last October and later charged with defamation arising out of an article published by his newspaper, ‘Folha 8’.

The New York-based CPJ said the trial presided over by Judge Joaquim De Abreu Cangato, was expected to last until the end of the week. At one session on Tuesday, it said, proceedings lasted 11 hours without a break.

“Marques is being tried in secrecy and without benefit of legal representation,” CPJ said in a statement on Thursday. “On 23 March, Judge Cangato illegally disbarred Marques’ lawyer, Luis Nascimento, after Nascimento walked out the courtroom to protest the judge’s refusal to hear an appeal he had filed to the Supreme Court of Angola on account of procedural irregularities in the trial.”

It said Marques, 28, had been allowed so far to call only a single witness. Testifying for the prosecution, Jose Leitao, director of the office of the president, and Aldemiro Vaz de Conceicao, the presidential spokesman, reportedly said that Marques’ criticism of the head of state had gone “beyond the limits of free expression.”

The two government officials further accused Marques of belonging to an “international conspiracy” obsessed with destroying the government. The CPJ said the prosecution also submitted as evidence a letter that Marques sent earlier this year to the president of the Angolan Parliament, protesting alleged death threats against him by a ruling party official.

“In his closing argument, Rui Ferreira, a lawyer for President dos Santos, urged Judge Cangato to be tough in his ruling since Marques had shown no signs of regret for his actions and had refused to cooperate in court,” the CPJ said. Ferreira recommended that “destabilising the army” be added to the charges, and that Marques be imprisoned for the longest period possible.

In Washington, a State Department spokesman said the conduct of trial raised fundamental questions about the commitment of the Luanda government to its stated objective of creating a free society.