Activists jailed for links to Togo attack

Luanda, 04 Aug-(ANA)-A total of four human rights activists have been jailed in Angola for reported links with a separatist group which attacked the Togolese football team in January.

University professor Belchior Lanso was sentenced to six years in prison and lawyer Francisco Luemba and Catholic priest Raul Tati to five years each.

Former police officer Jose Benjamin Fuca was jailed for three years.

They were said to have met exiled leaders of the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda in Paris.

Amnesty International and other groups have condemned the ruling.

The rights organisations say Angola is using the 30-minute machine gun attack on the Togolese football team to justify a crackdown on critics.

Two Togolese officials and an Angolan bus driver were killed in the shooting in January, ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations tournament. A faction of Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (Flec) said they carried out the attack. (ANA)

FA/ANA/04 August 2010--------