Angolan Government’s Websites Hacked by Anonymous’ Portugal for Imprisoning “Peaceful Campaigners”:
The Portuguese branch of the infamous hacktivists collective Anonymous isn’t much satisfied with the sentences given to members of a Luanda-based book club for reading a political book. Therefore, in retaliation, they hacked around 20 websites of the Angolan government.
The jailing of 17 young Angolan activists, including the famous rapper Luaty Beirão, occurred on Monday and they have been sentenced for different terms ranging between 2 and 8 ½ years on charges of plotting a “rebellion” against the government.
Amnesty International has termed this ruling as “an affront to justice,” and urged for the release of the activists immediately. Fifteen of the accused are currently under detention, which happened during a weekly book group meeting in June last year. The Amnesty Director Deprose Muchena states that “Angolan authorities use the criminal justice system to silence dissenting views.”
“The activists have been wrongly convicted in a deeply politicised trial. They are the victims of a government determined to intimidate anyone who dares to question its repressive policies.”
According to the Anonymous Portugal Facebook page statement, the group hacked 20 websites on Wednesday. The group claimed that the actual criminals are roaming “outside” and “defended by the capitalist system that increasingly spreads in the minds of the weak.”
The list of hacked websites along with other leaked data is available here.
The activists claim to be peaceful campaigners for the stepping down of the 73-year old dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos who has remained Angola’s president since 1979.
