Is justice being strong-armed?
Four men were sentenced to jail in Angola on Tuesday, and there are varying accounts as to whether or not justice has been served.
Back on January 8th, the Togolese national team was attacked while traveling for the African Cup of Nations, resulting in several players and officials either killed or injured. After initially banning Togo for the next 2 years for pulling out of the competition, the CAF came to their senses and realized that their position was ridiculous. People felt that reversal represented the right and just response to the tragedy, but were eager for a conclusion in the legal arena.
On Tuesday, the Angolan government claimed that conclusion was well on its way, jailing four men for their role in the attacks that had been attributed to the separatist group Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC).
“Belchior Lanso, an economist, was sentenced to six years in jail, while Francisco Luemba, a lawyer, and Raul Tati, a Catholic priest, got five-year terms, Antonio Nito, the attorney general of Cabinda, said in a phone interview today. Benjamin Fuca, a former police officer, received a four-year sentence, Nito said.”
The Angolan police claimed that the men had numerous papers in their homes linking them to FLEC, and that they had traveled to Paris to meet leaders of the separatist movement. They had been arrested almost immediately after the shootings, and have protested their innocence over the past 7 months.
Amnesty International noted that all four men had been critical of the Angolan government in the past, and that they were sentenced under the murky article 26 of Angolan law (Crimes against the Security of the State), which gives the authorities the power to classify any act as a crime. More importantly, Luemba and Tati have actually been long-standing critics of FLEC as well, making it unlikely indeed that they would cooperate with the separatists in staging a violent attack. The rebels themselves have denied that any of the four men have ties to the group, and have also urged their release.
It is sad, but unfortunately not surprising, that justice has been perverted in this case. The Angolan civil war has been ongoing for decades (despite a peace accord several years ago), and neither side seems to have the moral high ground, but this situation simply adds one tragedy to another.
