Angola: Ex-minister gets 14.5 years for embezzlement, money laundering, appeal pending

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Angola: Ex-minister gets 14.5 years for embezzlement, money laundering, appeal pending

3:37 CAT | 12 Apr 2021

Picture: Lusa

The Supreme Court of Angola has sentenced the former Angolan Media Minister and director of the former GRECIMA, Manuel Rabelais, to 14 years and six months in prison for the crimes of embezzlement and money laundering.

The co-defendant in the case, Hilário Gaspar Santos, at the time of the facts administrative assistant of GRECIMA, was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison for the same crimes.

Manuel Rabelais, former Minister of Social Communication, was listed in the case as former director of the former Office of Revitalization of Institutional Communication and Marketing of the Administration (GRECIMA), for acts committed between 2016 and 2017.

The sentence was presented today by the judge of the case Daniel Modesto, who at the end of his presentation said that the defendants, during the trial hearings, “showed no repentance and tried to cunningly dodge the unlawful acts they knew they had committed”.

The defence, for its part, filed an appeal with stay of execution, which was accepted by the judge of the case, so that the defendants should await the appeal in freedom.

According to the indictment, the defendants defrauded the Angolan state of over 22.9 billion kwanzas (30.6 million euros), of which 4.6 billion kwanzas (6 million euros) were received directly from the General State Budget and 18.3 billion kwanzas (24.4 million euros) from foreign currency received from the National Bank of Angola.

Source: Lusa