Angola: Family feud over body of late president Dos Santos drags on in court

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Angola: Family feud over body of late president Dos Santos drags on in court

2:08 CAT | 17 Aug 2022

FILE - Tchizé dos Santos. [File photo: Lusa]

Tchizé dos Santos, daughter of former Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos, will appeal the Spanish court’s decision awarding custody of the corpse to his ex-wife Ana Paula dos Santos, her lawyer told Lusa on Wednesday.

“The decision of the instruction judge number 11 of Barcelona to hand over the body of the former Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos to his former wife will be subject to appeal by Tchizé dos Santos,” lawyer Carmen Varela told Lusa, explaining that the argument has to do with the jurisdiction of the court.

“We will file an appeal because we understand that the criminal jurisdiction is not competent to rule on this matter, that it should be the civil jurisdiction to rule on it,” the lawyer argued, recalling that “there is currently a process underway in the civil court on this issue.”

José Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled Angola from 1979 to 2017, died on 8 July at the age of 79 in Barcelona, Spain, where he spent most of his time over the last five years.

Two factions of the dos Santos family are disputing, in the Family Court of the Civil Court of Catalonia, who will take custody of José Eduardo dos Santos’ body.

On one side are Tchizé dos Santos and her older siblings, who oppose handing over the remains to the former first lady and are against holding a state funeral before the 24 August elections to avoid political advantage.

On the other side, there is the widow Ana Paula dos Santos and her three children in common with José Eduardo dos Santos, who also claim the body and want it to be buried in Angola in the near future.

Source: Lusa