International NGOs voice support for Angolan journalist and human rights activist, Rafael Marques de Morais
Dear Attorney General João Maria de Sousa, As leading democracy, human rights, and anti-corruption organizations, we are writing to express our concern about recent judicial actions taken against the Angolan journalist and human rights activist, Mr. Rafael Marques de Morais...According to Mr. Marques, his interrogator informed him that he had been indicted in January 2013 on charges of defamation related to his book, Blood Diamonds: Corruption and Torture in Angola, published in Portugal in 2011. The book documents widely reported allegations of homicides, torture, forced displacement...and intimidation of inhabitants of the diamond-mining areas of Angola’s Lundas region...The complainants in the new indictment are civilian business partners of Angolan generals...All are shareholders and/or directors of a diamond mining company and its private security contractor, the alleged perpetrators of the crimes outlined in the Blood Diamonds book. In 2012, these Angolan generals filed a criminal defamation lawsuit against Mr. Marques in Portugal [which didn't succeed]...The plaintiffs are now pursuing a private prosecution in Portugal for libel and defamation against Mr. Marques...