Angola: Eldest dos Santos children seek clarification on handover of body

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Angola: Eldest dos Santos children seek clarification on handover of body

7:05 CAT | 24 Aug 2022

Photo: Lusa

The eldest four children of the late former Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos have asked Spain’s courts to clarify the circumstances in which his body was handed over to his widow, Ana Paula, and transferred to Angola without their knowledge.

The lawyers representing Tchizé dos Santos and three of her siblings made this request, which Lusa had access to, stressing that despite being one of the parties legally disputing the custody of the remains of José Eduardo dos Santos, who died in 08 July in Barcelona, they are officially unaware of “the whereabouts” of their father’s body.

They therefore ask the court to clarify “when, how and to whom the remains of José Eduardo dos Santos were delivered.”

The eldest children say they learned from the media that the body was allegedly handed over to the father’s widow and transferred to Luanda last Saturday.

This despite the fact that there are ongoing steps in the Spanish justice system, the last of which is a request from the eldest children to have a ceremony in Barcelona before the eventual transfer of the body, claiming that they could not go to the funeral in Luanda because their lives were at risk in Angola. .

Tchizé dos Santos’ lawyers guarantee that the court had asked the widow to comment on this possibility and conclude that Ana Paula dos Santos took the body to Luanda without responding to this request and without even notifying the court itself.

The Spanish justice concluded last Wednesday that José Eduardo dos Santos died of natural causes and ordered the delivery of the corpse to the widow.

The eldest children filed an appeal against this decision which was rejected and then, on Friday, an “appeal of appeal” which, however, had no suspensive effect on the court’s determination.

In the document delivered today, it is argued that the decision of the Spanish justice was to deliver the body to Ana Paula dos Santos for the “burial”, which still happened, with the coffin with the mortal remains exposed several days ago in Luanda, in a “mediatized” way, for the “benefit of the ruling party”, the MPLA, given that there are elections this Wednesday in Angola.

The funeral is only scheduled for August 28 and the children consider that this confirms the objective of political use of the father’s body and that, on the other hand, there would have been time for a ceremony in Barcelona.

In a second point of the request sent to the court today, Tchizé dos Santos’ lawyers recall that in July they filed a criminal complaint related to the circumstances of the death of José Eduardo dos Santos, which included possible crimes of “omission of the duty to help” and ” revelation of secrets”.

“Although the judicial autopsy concluded that the death of the former President of Angola was due to natural causes”, there are “indications”, reiterate the lawyers, recovering the arguments they had previously presented, that Ana Paula dos Santos and the personal doctor of José Eduardo dos Santos,, João Afonso, did not adopt “all the necessary and timely measures to ensure his full health” and also that they revealed “very sensitive information” about his condition to the Angolan and Portuguese media.

“All this, in collaboration” with the Government of Angola, with the aim of “hastening the transfer of the body”, in order to take place before the elections, argue the children.

In this context, the lawyers once again request the hearing of Ana Paula dos Santos and João Afonso as “persons under investigation” at the investigating court where they presented these complaints.

Source: Lusa