PETITION: FREE GENERAL NILA

Sign this petition calling on the Angolan authorities to immediately release activist General Nila and uphold his rights to liberty, due process, and a fair trial. No one should be detained arbitrarily or denied justice for peacefully exercising their rights.

What is the problem?

Serrote José de Oliveira (aka “General Nila”), aged 34, is an Angolan activist, leader of the UNTRA (National Unity for the Total Revolution of Angola) movement and street book salesman who has long campaigned for civil and political rights and the protection of activists. On July 28, 2025, in the early hours of the national demonstrations of taxi drivers, his life took a violent and unexpected turn. Witnesses reported that while on his way to the hospital to visit a relative, Serrote documented the first days of the strike with his phone and advised people to stay at home. Serrot was arrested by a plainclothes officer who shot him in the leg in the street, leaving him seriously injured.

Instead of receiving emergency medical care, Serrote was taken into custody and transferred between several facilities, including the Talatona Command Post and Vila Gamec Hospital. He was then taken to Luanda General Hospital, before being removed by the authorities without receiving an official medical certificate. The next day, he was transferred to the SIC (Criminal Investigation Services) in Luanda province, where he remained without receiving the care he needed.

On 31 July 2025, Serrote finally appeared before a judge, who immediately acknowledged the seriousness of his condition and ordered his transfer to the São Paulo Prison Hospital in Luanda. Police officers refused to comply. They ignored the court order and sent him to Viana prison, one of the capital’s leading prisons. From mid-August 2025, his condition deteriorated.

He was detained in degrading conditions, first in makeshift tents in Viana. In October 2025, without explanation or judicial authorization, he was secretly transferred to Calomboloca prison, located about 75 to 80 kilometers east of the city of Luanda, outside the province of Luanda, to a more isolated place, which has significantly complicated access for his family members, his lawyers and medical follow-up. His family had to send him medication in detention so that he could treat his wound himself, as the authorities refused to apply the medical care court order. Despite these conditions, his health has gradually improved. Now he’s doing well.

The authorities claim that he is suspected of having committed the offence of obstructing the provision of public services, as provided for and punishable by Article 4 of Law No. 13/24 of 29 August, relating to offences of vandalism against public goods and services, but no evidence or valid arrest warrant has ever been presented. His lawyers have been repeatedly denied access to the case, which infringes his right to defence. They filed a petition for habeas corpus in August 2025, and then requested the lifting of pre-trial detention; one was rejected, the other ignored.

Serrote’s case illustrates the escalation of repression and authoritarian practices against activists in Angola. The shootings fired at him, the failure to comply with the court orders and his ongoing arbitrary detention reveal a system that punishes and silences dissent with impunity. After spending years defending other people targeted for their activism, including organizing demonstrations in Luanda, Serrote has now become the victim of the very system he was fighting against.

It should be noted that the charges against him are based on a new law passed in 2024 targeting “acts of vandalism”, a law that civil society feared would be used to criminalize protest and silence activists. The case of Serrote now perfectly illustrates these fears.

This concern has since been confirmed at the constitutional level. In December 2025, the Constitutional Court of Angola reviewed the 2024 law on offences of vandalism against public goods and services and declared several of its provisions unconstitutional. The Court found that key articles violated fundamental constitutional principles, including legal certainty, proportionality, human dignity and the protection of fundamental rights. This decision casts serious doubt on the legality of prosecutions and detentions based on these provisions, further undermining the basis of the charges against Serrote and highlighting the more general misuse of the law to suppress peaceful dissent and civic activism.

What can you do to help?

Join the growing call for justice and accountability. Sign the petition today and demand the immediate release of General Nila, full respect for due process, and unrestricted access to legal counsel and the case file.