Beginning of JLO's mandate marked by judicial “arm of iron” with Portugal

In September 2017, when he took office, "there was in fact a kind of arm wrestling between two friendly countries that love each other, Angola and Portugal, because the Portuguese justice, at the time, intended to judge and eventually condemn the former vice president of the Republic of Angola", recognized João Lourenço.

"Angola put its foot down, because in this area of ​​judicial cooperation there are agreements between our two countries and the agreements must be fulfilled", said João Lourenço, considering that "Portugal ended up sending the process to Angola, because it had the good sense to recognize that the agreements are to be fulfilled, especially when it is between friendly countries".

The head of state, which today is the first of other collective interviews to be held this year, said that in addition to the reason he mentioned, the fact that he defended that "the states that value themselves do not they accept that, at this level - the President of the Republic or former President of the Republic, the Vice President or former Vice President -, in the case of committing crimes related to other countries that are judged and sentenced outside their country. country of origin, outside Angola, in this case".

For João Lourenço, "if the situation had been reversed, Portugal would have acted in the same way". "I don't see Portugal accepting that a former Portuguese President of the Republic, a former Portuguese Prime Minister, who, eventually, has committed a presumed crime with some connection to an African country, whatever it may be, Angola or any other, that these official entities of the Portuguese State were tried in Africa", he stressed.

"If they say yes, I will have to review my position, but I don't believe anyone has the courage to say yes," he stressed.

According to João Lourenço, it is for these reasons that Angola defended its sovereignty, which is not made only "arms in hand, with cannons, at the border level to avoid the invasion of other countries".

The demand was a "form of defense of sovereignty". "Not allowing a former President of the Republic or a former Vice President of the Republic to be tried and sentenced abroad, especially in cases where there are judicial cooperation agreements, is also an exercise in defending sovereignty," he stressed.

The President stressed that, with this gesture, he is "in no way saying that there is no crime".

"Who are we to say that? But we are also not saying that, with the receipt of the case from Portugal, that the case is archived. At least I have never heard a statement in this regard from the Attorney General's Office", he said .

João Lourenço also argued that the former vice-president of Angola benefits from the statute of immunity, referring to the function he exercised.

"What will happen from now on, when you lose this condition, this protection that the law gives you, that this statute is a law, justice knows what to do, I won't be the one to say which paths to follow. I must say no I am aware that his case has been archived, if it has not been archived, I do not see the reason for so much concern", he highlighted.

In 2018, João Lourenço even called into question the continuity of relations between Portugal and Angola due to a process called Operation Fizz, which led to the cooling of relations between the two countries, after the Portuguese justice accused the former vice-president Angolan, Manuel Vicente, of crimes and active corruption, falsification of documents and money laundering.
At the time, João Lourenço classified the attitude of Portuguese justice until then as "an offense" for Angola.

"Unfortunately [Portugal] did not comply with our request, alleging that it does not trust the Angolan justice system. We consider this an offense, we do not accept this type of treatment and for this reason we maintain our position," said João Lourenço.