Reporter who accused Angolan generals of human rights abuses in the blood diamond trade stands trial on libel charges

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

An Angolan journalist who accused generals in his country of human rights abuses in the illicit diamond trade faces libel charges in a case that is putting the spotlight on a major African oil producer keen to improve its reputation abroad.

Rafael Marques de Morais’s 2012 book, Blood Diamonds: Corruption and Torture in Angola, detailed more than 100 killings and the torture of civilians and workers at diamond mines owned by senior Angolan army officers. He alleged that the generals and company directors were complicit because they were reaping great profits from blood diamonds but doing nothing to stop the violence. Angola is also one of Africa’s two largest oil exporters.

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The generals denied the allegations and brought defamation charges against the journalist in Portugal, where the book was published, but the case was dismissed because of a lack of evidence. They are now accusing him of libel in Angola.

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“This is a politically charged case that has very little to do with the law,” Marques de Morais said this week.

“There is only one outcome that would serve justice and that is to send me home in peace,” added the journalist, who has won international awards for his human rights activism.

The court and prosecution lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.

Marques de Morais has been an outspoken critic of President José Eduardo dos Santos, who has ruled Angola for 36 years, leading it out of nearly three decades of civil war in 2002.

Jailing the journalist would draw criticism from global rights groups which have accused Dos Santos of limiting freedom of speech and keeping a tight grip on the media.

“I’m not afraid of prison,” Marques de Morais said. “If they think it will break me they are wrong. Quite the opposite. It will make me stronger.”

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Angola has been rebuilding since the end of the war, often via huge oil-for-infrastructure deals with China. It is now looking to increase its sway on the world stage, gaining a temporary seat on the UN security council last year.

The resumption of Marques de Morais’s trial on Thursday comes after opposition parties accused the police and military of killing hundreds of members of a Christian sect in the Huambo central highlands a month ago.

The authorities say only 13 sect members were killed and only after they had killed nine police officers.

The violence drew rare attention to Angola’s well-funded security forces. The country, an OPEC member, spent $6.5bn on security and defence in 2013, the biggest slice of its budget and more than any other sub-Saharan country.

Most of Angola’s 21 million people live on less than $2 a day.

“A trial of this nature brings attention to the aspects of misgovernance that the Dos Santos administration doesn’t want the world to see,” said Crisis Group analyst Paula Roque.