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At around 8:30 pm on Monday, just over a hundred people still refused to leave the place where the Rapid Intervention Police (PIR) and canine brigades were also located.

That afternoon, as Novo Jornal found on the spot, the protesters forbade the departure of officials and judges from the Luanda Provincial Court and several vehicles were prevented from circulating by relatives, friends and supporters of the detainees, who demanded their release. Two people passed out during this protest.

The protesters also protested against professionals from TPA and TV ZIMBO, preventing them from working.

Since the early hours, hundreds of people have been in the vicinity of the TPL, among these friends and family of the detainees, with slogans that demand the immediate release of the young people who participated in Saturday’s demonstration, which was violently repressed by the National Police, which displaced hundreds of PIR elements, dog brigades and cavalry to the city.

Among the detainees are 90 men and 13 women.

Attending the trial were several deputies and leaders of UNITA, a party that supported, like the Democratic Bloc, the protest organized by the Revolutionary Civil Society and Citizenship movements.

Regarding the detained journalists, after hearing the secretary general of the Union of Journalists, the professionals were released on Monday afternoon and will not be judged, but were first heard by SIC-Luanda.

“Freedom already !, Freedom now!”, Was heard at the beginning of the summary trial, on Monday morning, outside the Luanda Provincial Court.

Among the more than 200 people who were gathered outside the TPL, were family members and friends of the detainees, including journalists and UNITA leaders, a party that joined the protest organized by the Revolutionary Movement and the Movement for Citizenship.

As the Novo Jornal found before the trial started, detainees were taken to “Dona Joaquina” in separate groups while family members and friends of the detainees shouted slogans to demand the release of the youth, stressing that these are unjustified arrests .

UNITA has released a statement, however, which calls for the “unconditional release” of all detainees, as can be read on here.

On Monday, the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, met in Cidade Alta, with the ex-president of UNITA, Isaías Samakuva, having as a motto for the meeting the manifestation of Saturday and its consequences, as can be read on here.

According to the Secretary of State for the Interior, Salvador Rodrigues, among the detainees are, in addition to elements of the civil society organizations that organized the popular protest, Revolutionary Movement and Movement for Citizenship, UNITA leaders, who, in the middle of the week, to the Novo Jornal, he explained that he joined his support for the protest as a way of putting pressure on the Executive to commit to fighting unemployment and the social problems that Angola is going through.

To dilute the demonstration, the PN turned to hundreds of elements of the Rapid Intervention Police (PIR), cavalry and canine brigades.

The provincial governor of Luanda (GPL) made violent statements to the press against the demonstration where she warned of the risk of recurring violent episodes from the past in the country and called for vigilance against the manipulation of young people by “some” who have unresolved objectives.

With these words, the governor of Luanda made it clear that the State will impose its strength against this type of popular protests at this stage when Pais is going through a health crisis in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, which is accumulating with a severe economic crisis and when Angola is approaching yet another electoral period that is expected to be hot.