PAIGC condemns arrest of Domingos Simões Pereira as political persecution

Guinea-Bissau’s main opposition party, the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), has condemned the arrest of its leader, Domingos Simões Pereira, describing it as the latest step in what it calls an escalating campaign of political persecution under the country’s military-led transitional authorities.

The arrest comes as the military government prepares for an August 30 referendum on a proposed new Constitution that would replace Guinea-Bissau’s parliamentary system with a presidential regime, significantly expanding the powers of the head of state. The timing raises questions around the legitimacy of pursuing such sweeping constitutional changes while opposition leaders face detention and political repression.

In a statement issued on July 10, the PAIGC said police officers “invaded the residence of the President of the PAIGC and President of the National Popular Assembly, Comrade Domingos Simões Pereira, and took him to the prison facilities of the Second Police Station, where he is currently being detained.”

The party described the arrest as “an act of gross arbitrariness,” alleging that it was carried out “under the cover of a judicial order without any legal basis, issued by an illegally appointed judge, within the framework of a fabricated and abusively manipulated judicial process, with the blatant purpose of politically or even physically eliminating Domingos Simões Pereira.”

According to the PAIGC, the judicial proceedings against Pereira have been marked by systematic interference. The party claims that prosecutors assigned to the Military Court case were removed after refusing to comply with superior orders, after which “the regime created an ad hoc court to handle the proceedings, illegally transferring judges from civil courts, in flagrant violation of principles enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic, particularly the principle of the natural judge.”