Angola sentences Togo team attacker to 24 years

An Angolan court on Wednesday sentenced a man accused of participating in a gun attack on the Togolese football team. Joao Antonio Puati was sentenced to 24 years in prison. Another defendant, Daniel Simba, was acquitted owing to a lack of evidence.

Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko

The two men pleaded not guilty to armed rebellion when their case opened on 16 December. They were arrested on 8 January, several hours after the gun attack, which killed two people and led to Togo's withdrawal from the African Cup of Nations. Cabinda separatists claimed responsibility for the attack.

03:09

Rafael Marques, Luanda

Michel Arseneault

Journalist Rafael Marques in Luanda says the investigation of the attack lacks credibility.

During the attack there was a very heavy military and police presence with the Togolese team, he says. "Why would the separatists shoot at the bus [transporting the football team] and not shoot at the cars where these government officials were?"

Puati and Simba were the only people to be charged with participating. Five members of the Human Rights of Cabinda group were arrested in January and accused of targeting State security.

Four of them were given prison sentences of between three and six years in August. The fifth was released in November.

A French court has meanwhile placed under investigation the secretary general of the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda's militant branch (Flec/PM). Rodrigues Mingas is suspected of associating with a terrorist enterprise.

Flec has been demanding independence for Cabinda since the region was annexed by Angola in 1975.