Angolan businesswoman Isabel dos Santos, who lives in Dubai, reiterated on Friday that she has always been traceable and available to be heard in a case in which she is accused of 12 offences associated with her management of the oil company Sonangol.
Isabel dos Santos insists that she is being targeted in a “political” process, she said in response to statements made on Wednesday in Portugal by the Angolan Attorney General, Hélder Pitta Groz, in which he said that the request for Isabel dos Santos” arrest in Dubai had already been sent “more than a year ago” and that he is still waiting for it to be fulfilled.
“The treatment is manifestly unequal. If this wasn’t a political case against the daughter of the former President of the Republic of Angola [José Eduardo dos Santos, who died on 8 July 2022], the Committee for Evaluation and Analysis for Increasing the Efficiency of the Oil Sector led in 2016 by Edeltrudes Costa, who ordered and decided to hire consultants to restructure Sonangol, would be investigated, as would the ministers who would also be investigated and arrested. If it weren’t for this whole process, a political process against a single person: Isabel dos Santos,” she said in the statement.
Speaking to journalists in Lisbon, the Angolan attorney general regretted that the Arab authorities had not arrested Isabel dos Santos but emphasised that the most important thing was that the daughter of the former President of Angola should make herself available to the authorities.
“The statements made by the Attorney General of the Republic of Angola confirm that I am not (nor have I ever been) in an uncertain or unknown place. In other words, it is false that the Angolan authorities cannot locate me. As he stated, he has known my address and whereabouts for over a year and a half, confirming what I have always said: I am not a fugitive from justice,” Isabel dos Santos said in the statement released today.
“I am, and always have been, available to provide clarifications in the interests of the truth. For more than four years, I have participated and responded to all proceedings in Angola, Portugal, and any other jurisdiction whenever asked,” she added.
Pitta Groz denied the allegations of a political trial by Isabel dos Santos’ defence.
“The best way for her [Isabel dos Santos] to be able to demonstrate that it is a political process is to make herself available to the Angolan justice organs, and there be able to show, as she says, with concrete evidence, that it is a political process and not that there are illicit facts, is the best way to do that,” said the Angolan prosecutor.
However, according to Isabel dos Santos, the cases have been under judicial secrecy for more than four years in Portugal and Angola.
“It is impossible for me to know the reasons or suspicions about me because I am denied access to the files. As a result of the “secrecy of justice”, I am also not allowed to provide clarifications or present contradictory evidence, which could eliminate suspicions and demonstrate my innocence and clarify the truth,” the Angolan businesswoman replied.
“For more than four years, my bank accounts have been blocked. For more than four years, I have been prevented from working. For more than four years, I have been prevented from paying taxes or even travelling; for more than four years, my shares in my companies have been blocked; for more than four years, I have not been able to defend myself because everything is secret truly,” she insisted.
For Isabel dos Santos’ defence, countries that respect the most basic human rights do not subject people to judicial secrecy. Thus, for several years, the right of a person to know the suspicions against them, to defend themselves, and to present evidence or clarifications to discover the truth has been denied.
“Contrary to what the Angolan attorney general claims, my case is a political process, and the facts’ reality shows this. If it weren’t a political case, all the other members of Sonangol’s Board of Directors who worked with me and decided to hire and pay consultants would be charged and would have arrest warrants, as would the consulting firms such as BCG, McKinsey, PWC, Vieira de Almeida – Sociedade de Advogados, among others, who were working at Sonangol in 2016 and 2017 with more than 130 consultants at its headquarters in Luanda. They would also have detention orders and their bank accounts and companies blocked,” Isabel dos Santos argues in the statement.
Once considered the richest woman in Africa, Isabel dos Santos, who has lived outside Angola for several years, is accused of 12 offences in a case involving her management of the state oil company Sonangol between 2016 and 2017.
In 2020, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism revealed 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.
Lusa
