Africa-Press – Angola. Lawyer Jovete Domingos said this Thursday that the vice-president of the National Association of Taxi Drivers of Angola (ANATA) has been detained “illegally” for a week, without a judge’s indictment order, and is unaware of the crimes he is accused of.
According to the defense attorney for ANATA vice-president Rodrigo Luciano Catimba, who was detained a week ago in Benguela province and later transferred to Luanda, the arrest took place without any warrant and there are currently no formal grounds to justify it.
“Posts here in Luanda, where the positive certificate that could confirm compliance with the arrest warrant should have been drawn up, unfortunately do not exist either,” Jovete Domingos said today.
Speaking to Lusa, the lawyer urged the Angolan Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) to “immediately return his client’s freedom.”
“Because under the law, there are only two prerequisites for detaining someone: when caught in the act or when armed with an arrest warrant. In your case, since you were not found committing any criminal act, we can understand that you should have been shown an arrest warrant, hence we consider your detention to be illegal,” he argued.
Rodrigo Luciano Catimba was arrested on July 31 in Benguela, three days after protests and riots broke out in several Angolan provinces following a taxi drivers’ strike called by ANATA. Dozens of people died in the riots, and police made more than 1,500 arrests.
Angola’s Criminal Investigation Service (SIC) announced at the time that Catimba was arrested on suspicion of inciting violence, defending crime, rebellion and terrorism.
Today, the lawyer said he was unaware of the crimes the ANA vice-president is accused of, due to the lack of an indictment from the Public Prosecutor’s Office regarding the facts against him and the legal nature of the crimes he is accused of.
Jovete Domingos said that “upon being detained, as a precarious measure, he should have been heard in a preliminary interrogation by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which did not happen.”
“Through an indictment we would know what types of crimes were legal, but if that were not the case we said that from a legal and formal point of view there is no document that indicts him,” he explained, noting that he was heard on Monday in his first interrogation by the judge of guarantees, “who did not report the crimes he is accused of.”
The defense attorney also considered that, during the interrogation, the guarantee judge “simply” relied on a video circulating on social media, dated July 25, in which Rodrigo Luciano Catimba — detained at SIC Luanda — called for a taxi strike.
“And they simply say that this video is what led to the process being initiated, but in our opinion we did not find any words that could constitute criminal acts,” he noted, noting that he has already filed a habeas corpus request for his release.
On social media, taxi drivers and citizens express solidarity with Luciano Rodrigo Catimba and call for his release.
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