Some of the verdicts had been expected, especially regarding Callan one of his fellow mercenaries described him as "a homicidal maniac, who spent a lot of time killing blacks just for fun". Cecil Martin "Satch" Fortuin (South Africa/UK). Gustavo Marcelo Grillo, 27 (Argentina/US).Costas Georgiou (aka "Colonel Tony Callan"), 25 (Cyprus/UK).The following sentences were passed on 28 June 1976: Guilty verdicts were a foregone conclusion before the trial had even begun, Luis de Almeida, the Director of Information and Security, stated that the defendants were guilty and that the only thing that needed to be determined was how much punishment to mete out. The other judges were the Director of Angolan Television, two military officers and a member of the National Council of Women in Angola. Teixeira da Silva, the Attorney General of Angola. These included Jack Dromey, a British trade unionist who later became a Labour Party MP, and Stephen Sedley, later a UK High Court judge. The MPLA Government invited a group of foreign observers to attend the trial. On 26 May they were indicted by the People's Revolutionary Court in Luanda. Thirteen mercenaries fighting for the FNLA – nine British, three American and one Irish – were captured by MPLA forces by mid-February 1976. The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) was supported by the Soviet Union and Cuba, while the United States and some of its allies backed the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). Thirteen Western mercenaries were sentenced to either long prison terms or execution by firing squad.Īngola had gained its independence from Portugal on 11 November 1975, but the new country was immediately immersed in a three-sided civil war. The Luanda Trial was a trial held in Luanda, Angola, in June 1976 during the Angolan Civil War. 1976 trial and execution of Western mercenaries in Luanda during the Angolan Civil War
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