Ex-president wanted to be heard by the PGR on last trip to Angola but got no reply to request

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Ex-president wanted to be heard by the PGR on last trip to Angola but got no reply to request

11:30 CAT | 13 Jul 2022

Image: DW

The former Angolan president asked the public prosecutor’s office (PGR) to be heard in the case against generals “Dino” and “Kopelipa” on his last trip to Angola and ended up giving a written statement due to the lack of response.

Former president José Eduardo dos Santos returned to Luanda on 14 September last year, after more than three years of absence, and stayed there for about six months, returning on 7 March to Barcelona, the Spanish city where he lived and where he died on Friday.

During the period when he remained in Luanda, for the last time, he sought to be heard, and even considered giving a press conference in case of lack of response from the Angolan justice, according to documents to which Lusa had access.

However, he ended up giving his version of the facts involving two of his closest former colleagues, Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias Júnior (“Kopelipa”) and Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento (“Dino”), in an extensive written statement dated November 24, 2021.

Earlier, in a letter addressed to the public prosecutor, Helder Pitta Gróz, dated November 8, 2021, José Eduardo dos Santos requested “an urgent hearing” in all civil and criminal proceedings involving his name, including case 12/20, concerning Generals “Dino” and “Kopelipa”, regretting the lack of response to a first letter, of December 4, 2020, in which he already claimed the opportunity to exercise his right to be heard.

Expressing the desire to “contribute to the discovery of the truth,” Dos Santos asked for “the courtesy” of providing the necessary clarifications “for the last time” to the Angolan authorities, taking advantage of his presence in the country.

He hoped to see his request granted “within a reasonable period of time”, after which he “undertakes to do so publicly, in a press conference, so that, in this way that the applicant does not wish, he can provide the nation with the necessary clarification”.

At issue was the case in which defendants are his former henchmen, Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias Júnior and Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento, whose indictment appeared on the day of his death, 8 July 2022, and was made public firsthand by the Maka Angola website.

In the letter consulted by Lusa, José Eduardo dos Santos wrote that he “saw his right to be heard systematically curtailed, before the publication of any judicial decisions with a defamatory slant on his good name.

Due to the “silence of the official state authorities and others with responsibility for this, he has no choice but to directly exercise his right to defence,” the letter continues. He has informed other bodies such as the country’s president, the speaker of parliament, judges from the higher courts and the ombudsman, presidents of parties with parliamentary seats and presidents of the bishops’ conferences of Angola and Sao Tome and the council of Christian churches of Angola.

Three weeks later, given the lack of response to his letters, José Eduardo dos Santos eventually gave his version of events in the form of a “sworn statement” in which he explained his views on the participation of the China International Fund group in the national reconstruction programme and the actions of Generals “Kopelipa” and “Dino”, as well as of the former vice-president of the country and “boss” of Sonangol, Manuel Vicente.

The Angolan generals “Kopelipa” and “Dino” are accused of several crimes by the Angolan justice, including embezzlement, criminal association and money laundering, according to the indictment, consulted by Lusa

Manuel Helder Vieira Dias, better known as General “Kopelipa”, former head of the Angolan secret services at the time when José Eduardo dos Santos was head of state, was charged by the Angolan public prosecutor with embezzlement, fraud, forgery, criminal association, influence peddling, abuse of power and money laundering in a case that involved several companies, including oil company Sonangol.

Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento, known as “Dino”, former head of the communication service of José Eduardo dos Santos and a businessman, is accused of defrauding and falsifying documents, criminal association, influence trafficking and money laundering.

In the same case are also accused the companies CIF – China International Fund Angola, Plansmart International Limited and Utter Right International Limited, accused of fraud, falsification of documents, influence trafficking and money laundering.

According to the accusation, these three companies were part of a scheme set up by the defendants, which damaged the Angolan state by several million dollars.

Source: Lusa