The information was provided at the end of a meeting of the Interministerial Commission for Monitoring the Exercise of Religious Freedom, Belief and Worship in Angola, which analyzed the situation of the conflict in the IURD.
According to the head of the Institutional Communication and Press Office of the Ministry of the Interior, sub-commissioner Waldemar José, there is a criminal proceeding resulting from two public complaints, through letters, which in light of Angolan laws allowed the opening of that process.
“These are actions that range from the obligation to be castrated, vasectomy, the prohibition of having children. Some charges are also related to the Law of Infractions Underlying Money Laundering, it is alleged (…) that there is a misappropriation of capital, there is an improper transfer of capital”, said Waldemar José.
The head of the Ministry of Interior's office stressed that the process is under secrecy, but will be sent to court as soon as the preparatory investigation phase ends.
"If these complaints are proven in the process, we are actually facing some facts considered a crime", said Waldemar José, adding that "the alleged perpetrators of this infraction are responding for the facts that are accused".
In turn, the director of the National Institute of Religious Affairs (INAR), Castro Maria, said that the commission learned about the accusations that were raised by a group of Angolan bishops, pastors and workers from the IURD, in which they accuse the constituted leadership by the bishops, Brazilian pastors, “of practices that violate human dignity, which in general constitute a crime”.
Castro Maria stressed that actions are being taken by the competent bodies, in order to verify the veracity of the facts and, in a proper forum, take the measures that are deemed pertinent according to the law.
"For the time being we have not yet taken concrete measures, because the process is in the investigation phase and as soon as the procedural investigation phase ends, the allegations can be made and necessary measures taken", he said.
According to the director of INAR, from the point of view of the Law of Freedom, Religion and Worship, if these accusations that weigh on the leadership of the IURD are confirmed, this religious confession may have its recognition revoked by the authorities.
In that case, the Ministry of Culture, through the National Institute for Religious Affairs, may apply the measures related to what is found out.
"This necessarily goes through an initial suspension, then a revocation of knowledge and yet another measure, if it is convenient, it can go through an extinction of the religious confession itself and then move on to other phases", he stressed.
Castro Maria said that INAR has maintained contacts with the two groups, the bishops who presented the manifesto, as well as the group of bishops that constitutes the Brazilian leadership.
The objective is to “mediate, so that a better way can be found, in order to preserve, above all, cohesion among the faithful and that the church is naturally not involved in other issues that do not dignify, to a certain extent, what is the object of the church itself ”, he stressed.
