Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation”. The book’s cover describes it as “a blueprint for nonviolent resistance to repressive regimes”. Two more people were arrested later. Among the 17 were rapper Luaty Beirão, writer Domingos da Cruz and Nito Alves, who had already had a brush with the system two years earlier for printing 20 T-shirts with political slogans. They were accused of acts of rebellion, planning mass civil disobedience in the capital and producing fake passports, among other charges. They were formally charged on 16 September 2015 with preparing a “rebellion and a coup attempt” against the president. Amnesty International described their detention as a “travesty of justice”. Beirão and several others went on hunger strike to protest his detention, with Beirão maintaining his hunger strike for 36 days. Luaty Beirão was given a five-and-a-half year sentence for “rebellion against the president of the republic, criminal association and falsifying documents”. Activist Domingos da Cruz, singled-out as the group’s ‘leader’, was given an eight-and-a-half year sentence for rebellion and for criminal association. Charges of preparing a coup against the president were dropped. Immediately after the convictions, the activists’ lawyers lodged two appeals – one before the Supreme Court and the other before the Constitutional Court. They also lodged a writ for habeas corpus, which was heard by the Supreme Court on 29 June. The Court ordered the conditional release of the 17 activists pending a final decision on their case. 20 July On 20 July, the National Assembly approved an amnesty law relating to crimes committed up to 11 November 2015, including those related to the “Angola 17” case. Some of the 17 stated that as they had committed no crime, they did not want to be granted amnesty. Two youth activists were punished for criticising proceedings during the trial. 13 March Amnesty International Portugal delivered a human rights petition to the Angolan embassy in Lisbon, demanding that authorities guarantee a fair trial to Angolan activist and journalist Rafael Marques de Morais. In May 2015, Marques was sentenced to six year in prison, suspended for two years, for libel affecting 12 people, including generals in the Angolan armed forces, in his book Blood Diamonds: Corruption and Torture in Angola. Marques alleged that they, and directors of the Cuango Mining Company were responsible for killings, torture and land grabs in the country’s diamond fields. “We want the Angolan government to begin respecting, or at least show they respect human rights. We want this visibility to show respect for human rights”, said Amnesty International Portugal president Susana Gaspar. Nearly 40,000 people signed the Amnesty petition on behalf of Marques. Since his first brush with the law in 1999, Rafael Marques has faced a barrage of court cases against him, most on charges of defamation, arising from exposés of incidents of corruption and related, involving senior government figures. 8 November Amnesty International SecretaryGeneral Salil Shetty declared in November that the organisation was extremely concerned with press freedom and the situation of journalists in Angola, Mozambique and Equatorial Guinea.