Good afternoon. The government would like everyone to know that it is on a mission to stamp out white-collar crime. There have been quite a lot of arrests recently at state institutions like the finance ministry, the Tax Authority, the National Social Security Institute, and the state-owned airline LAM. The media have been invited to watch and take pictures while suspects are paraded in handcuffs and loaded into vans to go to prison. Some of the facts are laid out in the report that attorney-general Américo Letela is presenting to parliament today.
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But once they reach prison, things go quiet. Suspects can go for weeks or months without being told what they are being charged with or what evidence there is against them. Zitamar News is aware of people who have been in this state since November. Sometimes they are eventually released due to lack of evidence; but by then they have already effectively served a prison sentence without being charged, never mind tried. If their case does go to trial, they are often denied bail, and have to spend even more time behind bars in grotesquely overcrowded prisons, whether they need to be there or not.
