Angola demonstrates contempt to the UN decision condemning Carlos Manuel de São Vicente’s arbitrary detention
PRESS RELEASE
Geneva, April 10th, 2024 – The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, a thematic Special Procedures body sitting at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and overseen by the United Nations Human Rights Council, had concluded, on November 14th, 2023, that Mr São Vicente’s detention was arbitrary, as being in contravention of such gravity with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights, both ratified by Angola.
The UN experts called on Angola to release Carlos de São Vicente immediately, to bring his situation into conformity with the relevant international norms, to compensate him and to conduct an impartial investigation into the conditions under which the prosecution was conducted.
To this day, Angola is still disregarding the remedial measures it was called to comply with.
In fact, Angola has demonstrated contempt of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention’s Opinion, by refusing to release Mr São Vicente and actively pursuing the implementation of his tainted conviction. In February, it published documents to auction 39 hotels out of 84 confiscated from by AAA Activos Lda, a company in which Mr São Vicente has an indirect interest in, but not a party to the criminal proceedings and has not been notified of the sentence.
In light of Angola’s inaction and disregard for the most basic tenets of international law and human rights, lawyers François Zimeray and Jessica Finelle, declare: “We regret the contempt shown by Angola to the UN. All in all, it is becoming clear that Mr São Vicente’s continued illegal detention, after 3 and a half years, is aimed at capturing his assets, in a perfectly derogatory manner ”.
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