Benguela - The more than 200 national citizens in Namibian prisons may serve their sentences in Angola, under a cooperation agreement between the two countries.
The information was provided, in the centre-west Benguela Province, by the director-general of the Correctional Services of Namibia, Commissioner-General Rafael Amuniela.
According to the official, Namibia has 204 Angolan prisoners due to different crimes, such as illegal stay (19), aggravated robbery and theft (46), others for environmental crimes and also in preventive detention (26).
Rafael Amuniela said that 39 inmates have already expressed the will to serve their sentences in Angola, of these, 11 cases have already been sent to the country and are awaiting approval.
The Namibia's Chief Prison Police Representative added that the 11 prisoners may be transferred to Angola at any time, if there is speed in the processing of their cases between the two institutions.
On his turn, the director-general of the Prison Services of Angola, chief commissioner Bernardo Pereira Gourgel, informed that the country has 36 Namibian inmates.
The official assured that in the scope of the existing cooperation between the two institutions, the memorandum for the beginning of the exchange of inmates has already been handled, but he emphasized that this transfer depends on the will of the prisoner.
The representative of the Ministry of the Interior in Benguela Province, Commissioner Aristófanes dos Santos, who received the two countries’ delegations, revealed that the detention facilities in the province have 1,871 prisoners and there is no record of excessive pre-trial detention.
Aristófanes dos Santos also informed that the public security situation in the province is considered calm, with an average of 15 crimes per day, mostly theft and robbery in public roads, as well as occasionally occurring some murder crimes and sexual abuse.
He also explained that they are concerned about traffic accidents, with emphasis on the National Road 105, which in recent days recorded 30 cases.
The two countries signed in 2018 a bilateral agreement to transfer Angolan and Namibian prisoners to serve their sentences in their respective countries. That agreement can now begin to be implemented. CRB/MRA/jmc
