Luanda – Angola’s Cabinet Council approved Tuesday the proposal for an Amnesty Law, aimed at granting general pardon for common crimes punishable with a prison sentence of up to ten years, committed between 12 November 2015 and 11 November 2022
The communiqué of the session, chaired by the President of the Republic João Lourenço, states that the diploma, applicable to national or foreign citizens, excludes intentional crimes committed with violence and result in death.
The Minister of Justice and Human Rights Marcy Lopes specified that the pardon covers a quarter of the penalty handed to these citizens.
According to the official, this amnesty does not include intentional crimes committed with violence or threats to people that resulted in death or use of a firearm.
“Citizens who have committed violent crimes, trafficking in narcotics and psychotropic substances that are not of lesser gravity will not be granted amnesty,” he noted.
Speaking to the press at the end of the meeting, Minister Marcy Lopes clarified that “all crimes that include drug trafficking and that have a wider scope” will not be amnestied either.
In this context, the government official indicates that the crimes of trafficking in persons, sexual trafficking in persons, weapons and war ammunition will not be amnestied in the same way.
The same applies to the sexual crimes with penetration, sexual crimes committed against minors or that have been practiced through sexual aggression.
The list includes crimes of promoting and aiding illegal immigration, embezzlement, corruption, money laundering and environmental crimes.
The list continues with crimes that result in the damaging, destruction or deprivation of public property, crimes against the security of the State, which do not admit parole.
Completing the list are crimes of incitement to public disorder, popular uprising and coup d'état.
The last Amnesty Law was passed in 2015. “This is the reason why the temporal scope of the proposed law (...) has this temporal spectrum”, clarified the minister.
The proposed Amnesty Law will be discussed and approved by the National Assembly.
At Tuesday's session, the Cabinet Council also approved the Organic Statutes of the ministries of Public Works, Urban Planning and Housing, Agriculture and Forestry, Fisheries and Marine Resources, Culture and Tourism, as well as the Ministry of the Environment .
