"First we will exhaust the possibility of notifying her: if not in Portugal it will be in the United Kingdom [where she also have residence]. We're going to exhaust those possibilities so that we can then evaluate the application of another measure," Pitta Grós said in an interview with Lusa one day after he was received by her portuguese counterpart, whom he asked for help in notifying the defendants in a case of mismanagement of the oil company Sonangol.
The businesswoman have been in Lisbon on Thursday and continues with total freedom of movement, something that Pitta Grós considers normal, given the stage of the process.
"There is nothing we can do about her movements because there are no coercive measures in the criminal case. Only after she is questioned can a coercive measure be applied or not", he said.
For now, Interpol has not yet been contacted by Luanda nor has an international arrest warrant been requested.
"[First], we must comply with the procedural requirements. It has not yet been notified of this order," explained the prosecutor, adding that only if it does not "attend this interrogation" may it "have to follow this route.
For now, international judicial cooperation will be requested to notify the businesswoman who has a Russian passport: "We will have to go to countries where there are interests in this process, interest in notifying [Isabel dos Santos], interest in possible investments or money that, in an illicit way, have gone to these countries.
The businesswoman has claimed that she has never been notified and complains that justice is being selective in targeting corruption investigations, something Hélder Pitta Grós rejects.
Isabel dos Santos "was not notified [in Luanda] because she did not leave home to attend to the agent who went to notify her," and sent the "housekeeper to attend" who "signed" the judicial note, the prosecutor said, assuring the authorities are acting impartially in this case.
"Angolan justice is selective because it will only act against those who have committed crimes," he warned.
The case was uncovered by an international consortium of journalists and points to several suspicions about money transfers from Sonangol to a consultant of Isabel dos Santos, when the businesswoman was the oil company's administrator.
For now, promises the attorney general, Isabel dos Santos is not in danger of being arrested.
Besides Isabel dos Santos, the portuguese defendants in this case are businesswoman Paula Oliveira and manager Mário Leite da Silva and that was the request that Luanda made on Thursday to the Portuguese attorney general (PGR).
On Thursday, the Attorney General delivered a letter rogatory to the Lisbon authorities for the notification of the Portuguese defendants: "I believe that this will be of immediate compliance by the PGR", with "all possible speed".
"The first requirement is that all those citizens involved living in Portugal be notified of their condition as defendants to be later set a date to be interrogated," said Pitta Grós, who will soon return to Luanda.
At the meeting with the portuguese PGR, Pitta Grós did not clarify whether he requested the opening of actions to seize the assets of the businesswoman in Portugal.
"I think it is not good tone I, as a visitor, be saying what I talked at the house of who invited me. It would be good if she said something about it," the PGR said.
Hélder Pitta Grós also didn't want to comment on the portuguese authorities' lack of action in banking operations that indicated a lack of transparency, such as the transfers of millions of dollars to tax havens via the Eurobic bank, in which Isabel dos Santos was a shareholder.
"I can't regret or stop regretting" the action of the portuguese authorities, she added.
