Africa-Press – Angola. The Ombudsman’s Office in Lunda-Norte is concerned about the excess of pre-trial detention of 70 inmates at the Cacanda Penitentiary and are calling for an urgent resolution to reduce overcrowding in the prison.
Speaking to the press, at the end of the visit to the establishment over the weekend, the head of local services at the Ombudsman’s Office, Wilson Mucapola, said that the institution is also concerned about ten citizens who have already served their sentences but who remain imprisoned due to the lack of release by the Court.
The official assured that he will take the concern to the local Courts of Comarca, in the municipalities of Chitato and Cuango, as well as to the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), with a view to solving the two problems that jeopardize the rights, freedoms and guarantees of the citizens involved.
He said that the shortage of judicial magistrates and the Public Prosecutor’s Office to help the demand, in addition to the lack of a Court of Appeal in the region, have been delaying the sequence of cases.
On the other hand, he praised the conditions found in the cells and actions aimed at the reintegration and socialization of the penal population in the Cacanda penitentiary, with emphasis on professional training in the specialties of cutting and sewing and cooking, which in the 2023 training cycle benefited 32 inmates.
The Cacanda Penitentiary, with a capacity to house 480 inmates, currently controls 548 prisoners, of which 246 are detained and 302 are convicts, 176 of which are foreigners from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
For More News And Analysis About Angola Follow Africa-Press
