Semanario Angolense [not to be confused with the other paper by the same name, Angolense],
which was jointly made to pay more than US$260 000.
UPDATE: Graças Gampos was released on November 9, 2007 following a Supreme Court
order. The court order did not state whether he will be jailed again or will have to pay the
amount charged.
• ALERT
Date: February 18, 2007
Persons: Sarah Wykes
Violation: Other

On February 18 2007, Dr Sarah Wykes, a British woman working for the international organisation Global Witness, was arrested and accused of espionage.
Dr Wykes was in Cabinda gathering information for a report on the Angolan extractive industry
- oil and diamonds. She was arrested at her hotel early on February 18 and taken to prison. She
was to appear before a court on February 21.
There was no immediate comment from the Angolan government. A Global Witness spokesman
in London, Andy Lamb, confirmed the arrest.
“She has subsequently been charged with another offense but we are not able at this stage to
say what it was,” Lamb said. “We have alerted the British embassy in Angola who are on the
case.”
Mendes said Wykes was being held in deplorable conditions, was not fed during the day and
had nowhere to sleep.
Among Dr Wykes’ activities in the week leading to her arrest was her attendance at a human
rights training workshop in Luanda held by the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa
(OSISA).
Her arrest and detention follow reports from representatives of other prominent international
human rights advocacy organisations about increasingly restricted access to government officials.

So This Is Democracy? 2007

-19-

Media Institute of Southern Africa

Select target paragraph3