Angola's top court upholds a cannabis sentence and applies a pardon

Angola’s Supreme Court upheld a five-year cannabis-trafficking sentence on 12 October 2023 and granted the defendant a pardon of one quarter of that sentence. The case concerned 52 kilograms of cannabis found at his home in Uíge; the judges rejected his claim that he was a consumer rather than a seller.

Two searches produced a much larger total

Investigators went to the man’s home following a complaint on 22 November 2020. They first found a black bag containing two kilograms of cannabis, known locally as liamba. After receiving information that more remained in the house, they returned and found further supplies, bringing the recorded total to 52 kilograms.

The defendant said that the two bags found later belonged to a friend and that only the first quantity was his. He maintained that the cannabis he had acquired was reserved for his own consumption. The trial court convicted him in March 2021 and imposed five years in prison.

The court rejected the personal-use account

His appeal asked for acquittal on the ground that he was a consumer. That distinction mattered under the 1999 drug law: personal use, acquisition, possession and growing ordinarily carried up to three months, rising to one year above three days’ average consumption.

Ordinary trafficking carried eight to twelve years. The Supreme Court found the amount pointed to sale and considered his accounts inconsistent. It noted that he had described different quantities as his own at different stages, undermining his attempt to separate his cannabis from the bags he attributed to someone else.

Mitigation brought the sentence below eight years

The judges upheld the conviction under the ordinary trafficking offence. They also agreed with the trial court’s use of special mitigation, a power to impose a sentence below the normal range because of the circumstances of the offender and offence.

They recorded no aggravating circumstances and counted family responsibilities and partial confession in his favour. Those considerations, together with the type of drug and the circumstances of the case, supported keeping the five-year term.

A quarter pardon followed the conviction

The court then applied the 2022 amnesty law, granting a pardon of one quarter of the sentence. Its final order confirmed the conviction and sentence while recognising that reduction.

The result combined three separate decisions: treating the cannabis as a trafficking stock, accepting reasons for a shorter sentence, and applying a later pardon. Each affected the punishment the defendant faced under Angola’s criminal law.^[1][2]