Angola’s Attorney General said on Wednesday that the request to arrest Isabel dos Santos in Dubai was sent “more than a year ago” and is still waiting for it to be fulfilled.
“We have sent all the necessary documentation to Dubai and the United Arab Emirates, and we are waiting for them to comply,” said Hélder Pitta Groz at the end of a visit to his Portuguese counterpart.
In addition, he said, “We have made visits to the Emirates so that we can contact the competent authorities, and we are waiting for them to say something; it no longer depends on us.”
Speaking to journalists in Lisbon, the Angolan attorney general regretted that the Arab authorities were not arresting businesswoman Isabel dos Santos but emphasised that the most important thing is that the daughter of the former President of Angola makes herself available to the authorities.
“Nobody detains a person for the pleasure of arresting them, but at least we hope that [Isabel dos Santos] will be available to the Angolan justice authorities; until that happens, it’s difficult for the cases to be finalised,” said the prosecutor.
Stressing that the reason for the visit to Lisbon was not to discuss any specific case but rather to greet the new Portuguese prosecutor and express his willingness to continue collaborating, Pitta Groz also responded to Isabel dos Santos’ defence, which argues that the charges against her are a political process.
“The best way for her to demonstrate that it is a political process is to make herself available to the Angolan justice system and then show (as she says), with concrete evidence, that it is a political process and not that there are illegal facts, is the best way to do this,” said the Angolan prosecutor.
“The important thing is that she puts herself at our disposal so that the process can be concluded, either by arrest or by presenting herself of her own free will,” he repeated.
Daughter of the former Angolan president and previously considered the wealthiest woman in Africa, Isabel dos Santos, who has lived outside Angola for several years, is accused of 12 offences involving her management of the state oil company Sonangol between 2016 and 2017.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalism revealed 2020 more than 715,000 files, under the name Luanda Leaks, detailing alleged financial schemes by Isabel dos Santos and her husband, Sindika Dokolo, who has since died, which enabled them to take money from the Angolan treasury through tax havens.
The businesswoman has maintained her innocence, arguing that this is a political case brought by the current Angolan government to denigrate the image of the former President’s family.
Lusa
