In an interview with Lusa, Hélder Pitta Grós commented on the corruption process involving Manuel Vicente, which was sent by the portuguese judiciary to Luanda under the judicial cooperation agreement between the two countries.
"Both the former vice-president and the former president are protected by a law that grants them five years in which they will not be able to answer for their actions and therefore we will wait for the five years to elapse so that we can draw lessons from this so that we can learn whether or not justice is at the command of Manuel Vicente and on what terms," said Hélder Pitta Grós.
The attorney general reacted to the accusations that Luanda is acting only against the daughter of José Eduardo dos Santos.
After five years, he added, "anything is possible".
But until then "investigations can proceed normally and copies of everything that has to be done can be extracted so that it does not hinder or create obstacles to the normal functioning of the investigation," he said.
The former vice-president, Manuel Vicente, is pointed out as a central figure in Angolan politics, having been vice-president of José Eduardo dos Santos and one of the few who moved from the closest cycle of the former president to the current one, with whom he occupies the influential position of advisor for the energy sector.
Manuel Vicente was the basis of the "irritant" that made diplomatic relations between Portugal and Angola difficult in 2018, and that only ended when the portuguese Public Prosecutor sent, in May of that year, the investigation to Luanda, of which no further progress is known, besides the conviction by the portuguese justice, in December, of the portuguese prosecutor Orlando Figueira to six years and eight months of effective imprisonment.
The 'Operação Fizz' case includes alleged payments made by the then former president of Sonangol, Manuel Vicente, to a portuguese Public Prosecutor's Office, in the amount of 760 thousand euros, as well as a job offer as legal advisor at Banco Privado Atlântico, in exchange for the closure of investigations, namely the purchase of a luxury building in Estoril for 3.8 million euros.
After the sending of the part of the process involving Manuel Vicente to Angola, political relations between the two countries improved considerably, including reciprocal presidential visits.
In the interview in Portugal, after a meeting with the portuguese attorney general about the investigation into the businesswoman Isabel dos Santos, Hélder Pitta Grós also rejected the fact that the Angolan justice system is "selective" and that it only targets the family of the former President (the eldest son, José Filomeno dos Santos, has already been detained under an investigation into a 500 million dollars transfer by the Sovereign Fund, of which he was an administrator).
Justice in Angola is "selective because it will only act against those who have committed criminal acts", but "it acts on everyone", said the attorney general, giving the example of other politicians convicted in the recent past.
One of Isabel dos Santos' preferred business partners is General Leopoldino ['Dino'] do Nascimento, from the circle close to the former president, but Hélder Pitta Grós argued that the cases were different.
"I'm not defending General Dino, but he's never held a position in the management of the treasury, so it's not so easy to reach him," he said.
However, the general and businessman in the telecommunications area (Isabel dos Santos' partner in the Unitel mobile operator) "made the return of the amount that was owed to Sonangol and, called, fulfilled the obligation that there was and made the return of the corresponding amount," said Pitta Grós.
Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento, known as 'Dino', was the former head of presidential telecommunications between 1995 and 2010, and was also Minister of State and head of the Security House during the reign of José Eduardo dos Santos.
'Dino' was part of the so-called triumvirate that gravitated around the family of José Eduardo dos Santos, together with General Hélder Vieira Dias Júnior ('Kopelipa') and former Vice President Manuel Vicente.
Among the main known corporate holdings are Banco Económico, which resulted from the bankruptcy of Banco Espírito Santo Angola, the portuguese media group Newshold, and the 15 per cent stake in Puma Energy.
At the end of last year, the portuguese judicial police intercepted a 10 million euros transfer from 'Dino's' account at Millenium BCP on its way to Russia, believing that the recipient was Isabel dos Santos, which the police generally disprove.
