Angolan dissident rapper Luaty Beirao. (AFP Photo)
Hunger-striking Angolan dissident rapper Luaty Beirao has been hospitalised nearly four weeks into his protest over being detained without trial, his wife said today.
"He was transferred to a private clinic in Luanda on Thursday," Monica Almeida told AFP. "He lost consciousness for five minutes on Wednesday and the doctor was concerned."
Beirao, 33, who began the hunger strike on September 21, "is very weak," she said. "He cannot stand up."
Prison health chief Manuel Freire told the Portuguese news agency Lusa that Beirao was transferred to the clinic "as a precaution", adding that his condition "remains stable".
Beirao, a key opposition figure in the former Portuguese colony, was briefly hospitalised once before during the protest.
The engineer by training was arrested in June along with 14 other opposition activists accused of seeking to overthrow Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, in power since 1979 in the southwest African country.
He launched the hunger strike after his preventive custody extended beyond the 90 days permitted by law.
Deprose Muchena of Amnesty International voiced "great concern" over Beirao's condition and warned that "there are also already strong elements of an unfair trial in motion."
Muchena, the human rights watchdog's 's regional director for southern Africa, added: "He did not commit any crime. He is a prisoner of conscious."
A second prisoner arrested at the same time, Nelson Dibango, began a hunger strike on October 9, Amnesty said.
Activists like Beirao are also seeking better living conditions in Africa's second-biggest oil producer, where half the population still lives on less than $2 (1.8 euros) a day and where demonstrations are banned.
The detained activists face up to 12 years in jail if convicted.