Case History: Rafael Marques de Morais
Rafael Marques de Morais has a long history of holding the Angolan government to account for human rights abuses and corruption through his insightful, thoughtful and well regarded journalistic investigations. Mr. Marques is the recipient of numerous prestigious international awards for his work. He is an equal opportunity human rights defender, working to expose violations no matter who is the accused or accuser. For his effort, he has been arrested and detained multiple times in Angola. The United Nations Human Rights Committee determined his prior conviction for defamation violated his rights to liberty and security of the person, freedom of movement and freedom of expression.
In May 2015, he was given a six-month suspended jail term for defaming army generals in a book that revealed killings and torture in the country’s diamond fields.
Rafael Marques de Morais is a prominent Angolan journalist and human rights defender whose work focuses on government corruption and abuses in the diamond industry. He is also the founder and director of Maka Angola, an initiative dedicated to the struggle against corruption and the promotion of democracy in Angola. His book Diamantes de Sangue: Tortura e Corrupção em Angola (Blood Diamonds: Torture and Corruption in Angola) published in 2011 details dozens of cases of killing, hundreds of cases of torture, forced displacement and intimidation against villagers and diamond diggers in Cuango and Xá-Muteba districts in Lunda Norte province of Angola.
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- 28 May 2015 : Prosecution of Rafael Marques de Morais
- 22 May 2015 : Charges against Rafael Marques de Morais dropped
- 24 March 2015 : Rafael Marques de Morais Facing Jail for Writing a Book
- 22 July 2013 : Judicial harassment against journalist Mr Rafael Marques following publication of book about corruption and torture
Forty-nine human rights organizations, individuals, and academics issued a joint letter expressing strong concerns about the prosecution of Angolan journalist and human rights defender Rafael Marques de Morais.
The letter, signed by Front Line Defender's Executive Director Mary Lawlor, states:
Mr. Marques de Morais has been regularly and repeatedly harassed by state authorities because of his work. The 24 criminal defamation charges lodged against Marques, for example, are only the latest attempt by Angolan officials to silence his reporting. Marques has alleged a range of high-level corruption cases and human rights violations in his blog, and pursued sensitive investigations into human rights violations in Angola’s diamond areas. We are unaware of any serious effort by the Angolan attorney-general’s office to impartially and credibly investigate the allegations of the crimes for which he has been charged.
Your government appears to be using Angola’s criminal defamation laws to deter Mr. Marques de Morais from his human rights reporting. By doing so, the government is violating his right to freedom of expression as protected by Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Preventing him from reporting on human rights violations is contrary to the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.
Mr. Marques has a long history of holding the Angolan government to account for human rights abuses and corruption through his insightful, thoughtful and well regarded journalistic investigations. Mr. Marques is the recipient of numerous prestigious international awards for his work. He is an equal opportunity human rights defender, working to expose violations no matter who is the accused or accuser. For his effort, he has been arrested and detained multiple times in Angola. The United Nations Human Rights Committee determined his prior conviction for defamation violated his rights to liberty and security of the person, freedom of movement and freedom of expression.
Marques faces imprisonment and millions of dollars in fines, based on twenty-four criminal libel charges brought against him by Angolan army generals, mining companies, and their civilian shareholders. The charges followed his publication of the book, 'Blood Diamonds: Corruption and Torture in Angola', in Portugal in 2011. The book detailed the findings of Marques' investigation into human rights abuses connected to mining in the Cuango and Xá-Muteba districts of the Angolan province of Lunda Norte. It documented over 100 killings and hundreds of human rights violations, including torture, forced displacement and intimidation, which had taken place in the region. Marques reported the complicity of nine high-ranking Angolan generals, as well as several mining companies, in the violations.
On 21 May 2015, all charges against human rights defender Mr Rafael Marques de Morais were dropped by the Lunda Provincial Tribunal.
The decision of the Tribunal ends the threat Marques had faced of up to nine-years' imprisonment, and a fine of up to $1.2 million (approximately €1,073,095) based on twenty-four criminal libel charges brought against him by Angolan army generals, mining companies, and their civilian shareholders. The charges followed his publication of the book, Blood Diamonds: Corruption and Torture in Angola, in Portugal in 2011. The book detailed the findings of Marques' investigation into human rights abuses connected to mining in the Cuango and Xá-Muteba districts of the Angolan province of Lunda Norte. It documented over 100 killings and hundreds of human rights violations, including torture, forced displacement and intimidation, which had taken place in the region. Marques reported the complicity of nine high-ranking Angolan generals, as well as several mining companies, in the violations.
Proceedings against Rafael Marques began in Angola in July 2013. The development of the case against him had been rife with legal irregularities, including his questioning without the presence of his legal counsel, improper notice and summons, and the apparent intent of the prosecution to call Rafael Marques as a witness, resulting in his serving as both defendant and state witness in his own trial. Legal action against him, following the publication of Blood Diamonds, originally began in 2012, when the nine Angolan generals named in the book attempted to sue the human rights defender and his publisher through the Portuguese courts. The action was dismissed.
Journalist and human rights defender Rafael Marques de Morais wrote a book, and for that, he could go to jail. His book, published in Portugal in 2011, alleges serious human rights violations committed by army generals and companies in diamond fields in Angola. Those army generals and companies are taking him to court March 24th in Angola for criminal defamation, punishable under current Angolan law by both a prison term and a monetary penalty.
Mr. Marques has a long history of holding the Angolan government to account for human rights abuses and corruption through his insightful, thoughtful and well regarded journalistic investigations. Mr. Marques is the recipient of numerous prestigious international awards for his work. He is an equal opportunity human rights defender, working to expose violations no matter who is the accused or accuser. For his effort, he has been arrested and detained multiple times in Angola. The United Nations Human Rights Committee determined his prior conviction for defamation violated his rights to liberty and security of the person, freedom of movement and freedom of expression.
The book for which he is on trial, Blood Diamonds: Corruption and Torture in Angola, asserts damning accusations of egregious human rights violations committed against people residing in the Lundas region in the course of diamond excavations, including death, torture and forced evictions. The military officials and diamond mining companies and private security contractors implicated first attempted to sue Mr. Marques for defamation in Portugal but the case was dismissed. They then shifted venue and pursued legal action against Mr. Marques at home.
There have already been irregularities in the legal process of Mr. Marques’ case including questioning without his legal counsel present, improper notice and summons, and the fundamental contradiction of the apparent intent of the government to call Rafael as a witness, resulting in his serving as both defendant and state witness in his own trial.
Rafael Marques de Morais is due to appear for questioning before Angolan prosecutors on 31 July 2013* in Luanda, in connection with eleven cases brought against him following the publication of his book “Diamantes de Sangue: Tortura e Corrupção em Angola” (Blood Diamonds: Torture and Corruption in Angola) in 2011.
The human rights defender had been originally summoned for questioning on 23 July 2013, but arrived at the offices of the National Directorate of Investigation and Penal Action (DNIAP) to find that the prosecutor in charge of his case, Eleutério Wilson, was travelling. The deputy attorney general Beato Manuel Paulo, who had issued a warrant against the journalist to appear on the same day and hour before him, was not present either. The director of DNIAP, Júlia Rosa de Lacerda Gonçalves, who had summoned Marques to be questioned by her, informed him that Beato Manuel Paulo was to lead the interrogation, but was not at work that day, while Eleutério Wilson was still collecting evidence in the diamond areas.
Marques' book, Blood Diamonds, published in 2011 details dozens of cases of killing, hundreds of cases of torture, forced displacement and intimidation against villagers and diamond diggers in Cuango and Xá-Muteba districts in Lunda Norte province of Angola.
On 17 July 2013, Rafael Marques was summoned for questioning in connection with a total of eleven charges brought against him simultaneously. One of the charges (Case no. 58/2013) has been brought by civilian shareholders and managers of Sociedade Mineira do Cuango (Mining Society of Cuango) and ATM-Mining, who were named in the book Blood Diamonds. While the human rights defender has been summoned as suspect in all the eleven cases, in case no. 58/2013 he has been simultaneously summoned as suspect and state witness.
In 2012, nine high-ranking Angolan generals who were named in Blood Diamonds in connection with serious violations of human rights filed a criminal complaint against the human rights defender in Portugal, where the book was published. The generals have accused Rafael Marques and the publisher Tinta-da-China of libel and defamation, and asked for a compensation of €300,000. The case is pending at the Lisbon Court, but the Portuguese Public Prosecutor has already asked for its closure as “the publication of the book fell within the legitimate exercise of the basic rights of freedom of information and expression.”
