Angola: Preliminary autopsy shows former president died of ‘natural causes’, but highlights need for ‘further examinations’ – Lusa

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Angola: Preliminary autopsy shows former president died of ‘natural causes’, but highlights need for ‘further examinations’ – Lusa

8:30 CAT | 13 Jul 2022

Image: Lusa

The preliminary results of the autopsy performed on the former president of Angola José Eduardo dos Santos point to a death by natural causes, but highlight the need for further examinations, a judicial source told Lusa on Tuesday.

The preliminary results of the autopsy made on José Eduardo dos Santos over the weekend show “heart failure” and a large pulmonary infection, but the report delivered to the family stressed that it was necessary to complement this first information with more tests before a definitive conclusion, a judicial source explained to Lusa.

The preliminary result rules out, at least for now, one of the questions raised by Tchizé dos Santos, who had suggested that her father may have been poisoned, hence the need for an autopsy to be carried out to investigate this possibility.

The guarantee that José Eduardo dos Santos was not poisoned was given by the Angolan Attorney General, Hélder Fernando Pitta Gróz, who is part of the Angolan delegation that is in Barcelona to deal with the process of transferring the body of the former president.

A judicial source connected to the daughter of former Angolan president, Tchizé dos Santos, told Lusa on Tuesday morning that the judge examining the case was very clear in stating that the body would only be handed over to one of the parties after that decision, and the judicial authorities may want to hold new hearings with the family before deciding who to hand the body over to.

“The court has been unequivocal in stating that any news that points to a decision on who the body will be handed over to is hasty because the judge has not yet made the decision,” Tchize dos Santos said.

Government hires lawyers

Also yesterday, it was learned that the Angolan government had hired a law firm to support the legal process of José Eduardo dos Santos’ widow in the request in court for the custody of the body of the former president of Angola, who died on Friday in Barcelona.

The law firm will defend the interests of Ana Paula dos Santos and her children and represent the Angolan government in issues involving diplomatic and institutional protection for José Eduardo dos Santos. He was neither a Spanish national nor a resident of Spain, a source close to the case told Lusa.

“It was a transitory condition for medical assistance and, therefore, the executive is now dealing with the institutional and diplomatic issues,” the same source told Lusa.

This is the most recent episode in the dispute between the Angolan government and some of the children of José Eduardo dos Santos about the delivery and transfer of the mortal remains of the former president to Luanda, which is opposed by part of his family.

It is now up to the courts to decide on the delivery and possible transfer of José Eduardo dos Santos’ body. He left eight children from five wives behind, and the situation is disputed within the family.

On one side is Tchizé dos Santos and her older siblings, who reject to hold the funeral in Angola, where they have not been for several years since their father’s successor, João Lourenço, took office in 2017, starting a fight against corruption that has hit the eldest daughter, Isabel dos Santos, and her son “Zenu”.

On the other, there is the widow and mother of three of José Eduardo dos Santos’ children, Ana Paula dos Santos, who had been estranged from her husband for some years, re-emerging at his side in recent months, and who was the interlocutor for the Angolan government when he was hospitalised at the clinic in Barcelona, where he eventually died on Friday.

The Angolan government has said it wants to hold a state funeral in Luanda, but José Eduardo do Santos’ daughter, Tchizé dos Santos, has vehemently opposed the decision. She said this was not her father’s will and that José Eduardo dos Santos did not want to be buried in Angola while João Lourenço was in power.

The Spanish justice expects to take the judicial decision on the delivery of the body of the former Angolan president this week after the autopsy has been sent to the family.

José Eduardo dos Santos died on 8 July, aged 79, in a clinic in Barcelona, Spain, after weeks in hospital, and the Angolan government declared seven days of national mourning.

Eduardo dos Santos succeeded Agostinho Neto as President of Angola in 1979 and left office in 2017, serving one of the longest presidencies in the world, punctuated by accusations of corruption and nepotism.

In 2017, he resigned to run again, and the current President, João Lourenço, succeeded him in office, having also been elected by the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the party in government since the country became independent from Portugal in 1975.

Source: Lusa