Luanda - An Angolan court on Thursday sentenced a prominent anti-corruption activist to a six-month suspended jail term for defaming army generals in a book about violence in the country's diamond mining industry.
Rafael Marques, an outspoken campaigner and journalist, had earlier expected to be freed after an apparent deal was reached last week to drop all the charges against him.
But judge Adriano Cerveira said he had "decided, on behalf of the people, to give Rafael Marques de Morais, accused of the crime of slander... a single (suspended) sentence of six months in prison."
The court also ordered Marques to "withdraw the book from the market, including on the Internet, and not to republish or translate it".
In his book, which was published in Portugal in 2011, Marques accused the generals of being behind torture and killings committed by soldiers and private guards hired to protect diamond concessions in the north-eastern Lundas region.
"This decision shows that it is the generals who are ruling and they can manipulate things to suit them," Marques said after the sentencing, insisting he had been "tricked".
His lawyer David Mendes vowed to appeal, and said that Marques might ignore the order not to re-issue the book.
The sentence was higher than the one-month suspended term that the prosecution asked for earlier this week.
AFP
