Luanda – Five critics of Angola’s President Joao Lourenco have been freed after more than a year in detention, including a prominent TikToker, Amnesty International said on Tuesday.
Ana da Silva Miguel, known as Neth Nahara, was released on January 1 while the four others were freed on January 6, the rights group said in a statement. The president had announced their pardons on Christmas.
Neth Nahara was known for using TikTok to share advice on how to live healthy with HIV, making her one of the few Angolans to speak publicly about the issue. But she was arrested on August 13, 2023, after criticising Lourenco in a live video.
Activists Adolfo Campos, Hermenegildo Victor Jose, Gilson Moreira, and Abraao Pedro Santos were arrested on September 16, 2023, before a planned protest, the group said.
Amnesty said the government had denied Neth Nahara her HIV medication in prison, and said the health of the others had also seriously declined while they were behind bars.
“Though we celebrate their release, these five people should never have been locked up,” said Sarah Jackson, Amnesty’s deputy director for East and Southern Africa. “Authorities arrested them solely for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. We look forward to them receiving the medical care that authorities deliberately denied them in prison.”
Angola experienced a wave of protests after the government cut fuel subsidies in June 2023. Rights groups accused police of killing 17 protesters.
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Source: AFP
Picture: X/@HHichilema
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