He was sentenced by a court in the capital, Luanda, along with 16 other activists. Their jail terms varied from two to eight years.
Amnesty International has criticized the ruling and said the accused were sentenced by a “kangaroo court”.
The 17 had been in detention since June following their arrest after discussing a book about non-violent resistance at their book club.
Mr dos Santos has ruled oil-rich Angola since 1979.
Beirao has regularly criticized the government and frequently called for a fairer distribution of the southern African state’s oil wealth.
The judge convicted him of “rebellion against the president of the republic, criminal association and falsifying documents”.
There has been widespread outrage following the verdict. Various rights groups said it showed that Mr dos Santos’ government was becoming increasingly repressive in a bid to remain in power.
The Human Rights Watch said the verdict was “a ridiculous scandal”, while Amnesty International described the defendants on Twitter as “prisoners of conscience” who had been subjected to a “kangaroo court trial [which] violated international standards”.
The jailed activists, who belonged to a youth movement, had previously held demonstrations demanding the resignation of Mr dos Santos, who has been in power for 36 years.
Their book club had discussed the 1993 book by Gene Sharp called From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation.
The end of Angola's civil war in 2002 led to an economic boom as the country is currently Africa’s second-largest oil producer. Critics has however said that the country's wealth has only benefitted a few.
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