The Attorney General of the Republic of Angola said this Thursday that the case against Isabel dos Santos, daughter of former President José Eduardo dos Santos, has been completed and that letters have been sent to Dubai asking her to notify her of the charges.
Letters rogatory are an instrument of judicial cooperation, which is a request to carry out a procedural action that requires the intervention of the judicial services of a foreign authority.
Businesswoman Isabel dos Santos is the subject of litigation in several jurisdictions other than Angola, including Portugal.
“We have already completed the process, the indictment has already been drawn up,” the official said, adding that the defendants must be notified of this before the case comes to court.
“There are defendants who are in Portugal, we have already received a positive response to their notification, and we only have to receive a response regarding Isabel dos Santos. We have already sent a letter of writ to Dubai, where she is expected to live. We hope that at any time we will give an answer, positive in the sense that they were able to notify, or negative if they were not able to notify,” Pitta Gros detailed, adding that if the answer is positive, the case can be reviewed immediately. to court.
Isabel dos Santos and four other defendants are accused of various crimes related to the management of Angolan state oil company Sonangol between 2016 and 2017, and of causing more than $208 million (€190 million) in losses to the Angolan state, including improper payments wages, loss-making sales, tax fraud and fraudulent payments to companies.
Pitta Gros also provided an overview of other cases involving figures close to the former Angolan president who are now on trial, such as General Helder Vieira “Copelipa” Díaz and former vice president and former Sonangol boss Manuel Vicente.
In the case of Copelipa, the contradictory order has been carried out and the court is waiting to set a trial date, while in the case of Manuel Vicente, the authorities continue to “work” on the trial, Pitta Gros said, without specifying a date, to acknowledge that the fact that the former ruler is overseas means even more delays.
“Many situations occur abroad, we largely depend on international cooperation, on the speed and efficiency of these countries, from whom we request some information that they can provide us, I cannot say whether it will be provided in the near future . the end of this or next year,” the prosecutor emphasized.
Responding to Lusa, Pitta Gros added that Manuel Vicente has not yet been heard and that the total amount of assets that can be returned by the Angolan state is unknown.
The head of the IRT said that the fight against corruption, which brings great problems “because of its complexity,” has not slowed down in Angola, but has become less visible in the media.
“We worked, but without much publicity about what we did. Our original intention was to have a certain impact on people so that they could curb their desire to have access to public goods, and we somehow managed,” he joked, pointing out that ” there were practices that were no longer used.”
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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