Loeb winner on trial for libel in Angola

Angolan journalist Rafael Marques de Moraes, who helped Forbes document that one of the country’s residents was worth $3 billion, resulting in a Gerald Loeb Award earlier this year, now faces a libel trail for accusing military leaders in the country of torture and homicide, writes Kerry Dolan of Forbes.

Dolan writes, “Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch and 14 other human rights and free speech groups sent a letter to the U.N. and the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights in August protesting the prosecution of Marques de Morais. The groups asked the African Commission and the U.N. to request that the Angolan government stop the proceedings against Marques de Morais and refrain from further prosecution — so far to no avail. Calls by Forbes to the press attaché at the Embassy of Angola in Washington D.C. were not returned.

“I worked very closely with Rafael Marques de Morais to co-author an article detailing the means by which Isabel dos Santos, the oldest daughter of Angola’s longtime President Jose Eduardo dos Santos , acquired a multi-billion dollar fortune, thanks largely to kleptocratic transfers initiated by her father. A spokesman for Isabel dos Santos said that allegations of improper transfers are ‘groundless and completely absurd.’ The article won a Loeb Award for International Reporting in June. Marques de Morais, who came to New York to attend the Loeb awards, stopped by the Forbes building and told us about being thrown in jail more than once for merely doing his job in Angola. He is one very brave reporter.

“The road to the trial slated to start on December 15 in Luanda has been a long one, spelled out in great detail in a post on Maka Angola, a website run by Marques de Morais. The essence is this: In 2011, Marques de Morais’ book (written in Portuguese) ‘Blood Diamonds: Torture and Corruption in Angola’ was published in Portugal. The book recounts 500 cases of torture and 100 killings that took place over an 18-month period in a diamond-mining district in Angola. According to the book, the torture and killings were carried out by guards from a private security firm and by members of the Angolan Armed Forces.”

Read more here.