It may be impossible for Angolan journalist Rafael Marques de Morais to get a fair trial in his home country.

Marques has been charged with criminal defamation by several Angolan military generals as a result of his 2011 book, “Blood Diamonds: Corruption andTorture in Angola” in which he wrote that the generals had orchestrated torture and killings in Angola’s diamond-mining region.

In many countries, the generals would be the ones on trial, not the journalist who exposed the alleged crimes. But this is Angola, a country with a state-run news media, an iron-fisted president and next to no tolerance for opposition...The judge has allowed a line of questioning to Marques that makes no sense whatsoever... He says that the generals are the owners of private security companies that protected the diamond mines, and that employees of these companies killed and tortured villagers...

An out-of-court settlement went nowhere because Marques refused to apologize for what he had written. “I do not agree to compromise my principles,” he said.