Africa-Press – Angola. The Moxico District Court does not know the whereabouts of 866 defendants indicted in various violent crimes and who are awaiting their respective trials, some of them since 2021, in Luena, the local presiding judge, Rivaltino Van-Dúnem.
Regarding the activities carried out in 2022, Rivaltino Van-Dúnem said that these were citizens accused of theft, theft, homicide and sexual assault, the latter, fundamentally against minors from 12 to 14 years of age.
The judicial magistrate justified the loss of track of the defendants with the “complex geography of the province and the lack of transport in court” to carry out diligences, since many of them were on parole.
“Many of these 866 defendants were not tried because they are in an uncertain location, it is not known where they are given the geography of the province and the court has difficulties due to lack of rolling resources”, he lamented.
Rivaltino Van-Dúnem clarified that in all there are 1,586 cases that were carried over to 2023, with emphasis on civil (117), family (516) and work (40).
He ruled out the possibility of judging the defendants in absentia due to the fact that the current Penal Code eliminates this figure (trial in absentia).
With the exception of homicide, physical aggression and other specific crimes, the judge informed that some processes will be amnesty, with administrative work being carried out for their implementation.
Fight against corruption
The District Court of Moxico judged, in 2022, 13 cases involving public officials indicted in the crimes of mismanagement, embezzlement, appropriation of public property, among others.
These are three cases that were sentenced, an equal number filed and suspended, and others are on appeal in the context of contradictory instruction.
“There are still others referred to the Luanda Court of Appeal, due to the lack of a Court of Appeal in the eastern region”, he concluded.
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