A court in Angola has court sentenced seventeen young activists to between two and eight-and-a-half years in prison for rebellion against the government of President JOSE EDUARDO DOS SANTOS

Reuters news agency reports that the activists were arrested in Luanda in June last year, after organizing a reading of a book entitled “From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation”.The cover of the book written by U.S. academic GENE SHARP in 1993 describes it as a blueprint for non-violent resistance to repressive regimes.The activists were accused of acts of rebellion, planning mass civil disobedience in the capital and producing fake passports, among other charges. The men were sent to jail immediately but their defense lawyer requested the sentences be suspended pending an appeal in Angola’s Supreme Court.