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Angolan prosecutors seek one-month jail for anti-corruption activist | Angolan prosecutors seek one-month jail for anti-corruption activist |
(about 2 hours later) | |
Angolan prosecutors sought a suspended one-month jail sentence for anti-corruption activist Rafael Marques de Morais on Monday, despite a deal to drop defamation charges against him, his lawyer said. | Angolan prosecutors sought a suspended one-month jail sentence for anti-corruption activist Rafael Marques de Morais on Monday, despite a deal to drop defamation charges against him, his lawyer said. |
Related: This week I may be jailed for writing a book on human rights abuses | Related: This week I may be jailed for writing a book on human rights abuses |
Prosecutors made the request during final arguments in the trial in Luanda of Marques, who was accused of defaming several generals in a 2011 book about violence and rights violations linked to Angola’s lucrative diamond mining industry. | |
The request for a suspended sentence came as a surprise to lawyers after the generals last week agreed to drop the charges on condition that Marques would not re-release his book that accuses them of corruption and torture. | The request for a suspended sentence came as a surprise to lawyers after the generals last week agreed to drop the charges on condition that Marques would not re-release his book that accuses them of corruption and torture. |
“Despite the agreement reached between the parties, the prosecution has asked for a one-month suspended prison sentence,” his lawyer David Mendes said. | “Despite the agreement reached between the parties, the prosecution has asked for a one-month suspended prison sentence,” his lawyer David Mendes said. |
He vowed to appeal against any sentence when the verdict was handed down, which is expected to happen on Thursday. | |
Marques said he felt “tricked” in the wake of the deal he had secured with the generals. “After all this, the state asks that I be sentenced, saying that I had failed to give evidence,” said Marques as he left the court room. | Marques said he felt “tricked” in the wake of the deal he had secured with the generals. “After all this, the state asks that I be sentenced, saying that I had failed to give evidence,” said Marques as he left the court room. |
Following agreement between him and the generals, none of the witnesses, including Marques and a woman whose two sons were killed by security forces within a year of each other in the mining region, gave evidence during the trial. | Following agreement between him and the generals, none of the witnesses, including Marques and a woman whose two sons were killed by security forces within a year of each other in the mining region, gave evidence during the trial. |
The generals, including one of president José Eduardo dos Santos’ closest allies, had originally claimed $1.2m (£780,000) in damages. |
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