After nearly six years of arbitrary detention, Carlos Manuel de São Vicente calls again for immediate release for urgent medical treatment
Geneva, 20 August 2026
The family and lawyers of Mr. Carlos Manuel de São Vicente are calling on the Angolan authorities to release him urgently on legal, medical and humanitarian grounds.
After nearly six years in detention, Mr. Carlos de São Vicente has developed several diseases in addition to the ones which he was already afflicted when he was taken into Viana Prison, leading him to repeated hospitalizations. Mr. Carlos de São Vicente now urgently needs to have three surgeries and other medical treatment to save his life. The first of these procedures is scheduled before 15th September in Portugal.
Mr. São Vicente’s family is particularly concerned that, while he remains in detention, access to medical care outside Viana Prison depends on authorization by the Angolan authorities. Earlier this year, despite concerning symptoms, repeated requests for hospital care were not acted upon in a timely manner. When he was eventually taken for emergency medical care, the gravity of his condition was established, and surgical intervention was required in March 2026. Further surgery and specialized treatment remain necessary and urgent.
The family fears that continued delays in accessing appropriate medical care may have serious and potentially irreversible consequences for his health and life. It is therefore seeking Mr. São Vicente’s immediate release so that he can travel to Portugal for a comprehensive multidisciplinary medical assessment and receive, in an appropriate medical environment, with the family support, the treatment and the three surgeries considered necessary.
Mr. Carlos de São Vicente’s new call to the Angolan authorities comes after eight petitions already ignored by the State and its persistent refusal to release him, despite the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD)’s Opinion dated November 14th, 2023, urging Angola to set him free. The UN experts had found that the treatment of Mr. Carlos de São Vicente by his country amounted to arbitrary detention and that the only adequate remedy was his immediate release.
Since then, ‘no action has been taken by the Government to implement the opinion’, as pointed by the 2024 Annual Report of the UNWGAD, while, in accordance with Article 13 of the Angolan Constitution, the Opinion is directly applicable in Angola.
Lawyers François Zimeray and Jessica Finelle, declare: “Our client should already have been released many years ago. This is all the more the case today, after nearly six years in arbitrary detention. In addition, while hundreds of Angolan detainees have benefitted, in the past years, from a presidential pardon, Mr. Carlos de São Vicente who is eligible for parole and is very weak physically, remains in jail. Continuing to deprive him of his liberty in these circumstances is indefensible. This has nothing to do with justice. His immediate release is an absolute and unconditional prerequisite.”.
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